''The River'' is a 1997 Taiwanese film directed by
Tsai Ming-liang
Tsai Ming-liang (; born 27 October 1957) is a Malaysian-Taiwanese filmmaker. Tsai has written and directed 11 feature films, many short films, and television films. He is one of the most celebrated "Second New Wave" film directors of Taiwanese ...
and starring
Lee Kang-sheng
Lee Kang-sheng () (born 21 October 1968) is a Taiwanese actor, film director and screenwriter. He has appeared in all of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films. Lee's directorial efforts include ''The Missing'' in 2003 and ''Help Me Eros'' in 2007.
Ca ...
,
Miao Tien
Miao Tien (, 6 December 1925 – 19 February 2005) was a Chinese film actor mostly active in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Lee, Daw-ming (2012). Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema'. Scarecrow Press. pp. 281–282.
Biography
Miao graduated at the Teach ...
, and
Lu Yi-ching
Lu Yi-ching (born 23 October 1958) is a Taiwanese actress. She has appeared in several films directed by Tsai Ming-liang, such as ''What Time Is It There?'' and ''The Wayward Cloud'', and films by Cheng Wen-tang, including '' Blue Cha Cha''. Lu ...
. The plot centers on a family who has to deal with the son's
neck pain
Neck pain, also known as cervicalgia, is a common problem, with two-thirds of the population having neck pain at some point in their lives.
Neck pain, although felt in the neck, can be caused by numerous other spinal problems. Neck pain may arise ...
. In 2003, a critic called it Tsai's "bleakest film."
[Hughes, Darren]
"Tsai Ming-liang"
''archive.sensesofcinema.com'', March 2003. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Plot
Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang-sheng), a young man in his 20s, is going up an escalator in
Taipei
Taipei (), officially Taipei City, is the capital and a special municipality of the Republic of China (Taiwan). Located in Northern Taiwan, Taipei City is an enclave of the municipality of New Taipei City that sits about southwest of the n ...
when he meets an old girlfriend of his (
Chen Shiang-chyi
Chen Shiang-chyi (; born 27 November 1969) is a Taiwanese actress. She has appeared in most of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films.
Career
When she was studying at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Chen was spotted by Edward Yang when he ...
). She convinces him to accompany her to a film shoot that she is working on. While eating lunch, Hsiao-Kang is spotted by the film's
director
Director may refer to:
Literature
* ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine
* ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker
* ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty
Music
* Director (band), an Irish rock band
* ''Di ...
(
Ann Hui
Ann Hui On-wah, (; born 23 May 1947) is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in Hon ...
). The scene that they are currently shooting needs an actor, so Hsiao-Kang agrees to step in. He lies face down in the dirty
Tamsui River
The Tamsui River (alternatively Danshui River, ) is third longest river in Taiwan after Zhuoshui River and Gaoping River, with a total length of , flowing through Hsinchu County, Taoyuan, Taipei and New Taipei City. It is located in northern pa ...
for a few seconds, pretending to be a dead body.
After the scene is completed, he and his friend get a room in a hotel so Hsiao-Kang can take a shower. The two then have
sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse (or coitus or copulation) is a sexual activity typically involving the insertion and thrusting of the penis into the vagina for sexual pleasure or reproduction.Sexual intercourse most commonly means penile–vaginal penetrat ...
. Hsiao-Kang drives home on his
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
and begins to feel some soreness in his neck. He eventually falls off the bike, and a man, later shown to be his father (
Miao Tien
Miao Tien (, 6 December 1925 – 19 February 2005) was a Chinese film actor mostly active in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Lee, Daw-ming (2012). Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema'. Scarecrow Press. pp. 281–282.
Biography
Miao graduated at the Teach ...
), tries to help him up, but Hsiao-Kang ignores him and drives the rest of the way back.
By that night, his neck pain is even worse. He goes to his mother (Lu Yi-ching), and she rubs some lotion on him. However, the pain does not go away. The family tries different methods of healing, including
acupuncture
Acupuncture is a form of alternative medicine and a component of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in which thin needles are inserted into the body. Acupuncture is a pseudoscience; the theories and practices of TCM are not based on scientifi ...
, but nothing works, and Hsiao-Kang begins to wish he were dead. Meanwhile, it is apparent that the family is fractured, with communication problems. Hsiao-Kang's father regularly visits a
bathhouse
Public baths originated when most people in population centers did not have access to private bathing facilities. Though termed "public", they have often been restricted according to gender, religious affiliation, personal membership, and other cr ...
and has sexual encounters with other men. The mother is having an
affair
An affair is a sexual relationship, romantic friendship, or passionate attachment in which at least one of its participants has a formal or informal commitment to a third person who may neither agree to such relationship nor even be aware of i ...
with a pornographer.
Finally, Hsiao-Kang and his father travel to see a provincial healer. The healer is not able to foresee anything on their first visit, so they rent a hotel room. That night, they both go to the same bathhouse, separately. Hsiao-Kang eventually walks into his dad's room in the dark, and the two give each other
handjob
A handjob, also spelled hand job, is a sex act, performed as either foreplay or as non-penetrative sex, that involves the manual stimulation of the penis or scrotum by another person to induce an erection for sexual pleasure, sexual arousal and s ...
s.
When Hsiao-Kang's father turns the light on and sees his son, he slaps him, and Hsiao-Kang runs out. They meet back at the hotel room. The next morning, the father receives a phone call from the healer, who says that he cannot help them. The father then wakes Hsiao-Kang up and says that they're leaving. Hsiao-Kang walks out onto the hotel room balcony, while clutching his neck and grimacing in pain.
Cast
*
Lee Kang-sheng
Lee Kang-sheng () (born 21 October 1968) is a Taiwanese actor, film director and screenwriter. He has appeared in all of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films. Lee's directorial efforts include ''The Missing'' in 2003 and ''Help Me Eros'' in 2007.
Ca ...
as Hsiao-Kang
*
Miao Tien
Miao Tien (, 6 December 1925 – 19 February 2005) was a Chinese film actor mostly active in Hong Kong and Taiwan.Lee, Daw-ming (2012). Historical Dictionary of Taiwan Cinema'. Scarecrow Press. pp. 281–282.
Biography
Miao graduated at the Teach ...
as Father
*
Lu Hsiao-ling as Mother
*
Ann Huei as Film director
*
Chen Shiang-chyi
Chen Shiang-chyi (; born 27 November 1969) is a Taiwanese actress. She has appeared in most of Tsai Ming-liang's feature films.
Career
When she was studying at the Taipei National University of the Arts, Chen was spotted by Edward Yang when he ...
as Hsiao-Kang's girlfriend
*
Chen Chao-jung
Chen Chao-jung, also known as Aaron Chen, is a Taiwanese actor and businessman.
He is known for starring in several of Tsai Ming-liang's films, including ''Rebels of the Neon God'' and ''Vive L'Amour''. He is also considered a household name ...
as Young man at sauna
*Lu Chiao-lin as Mother's lover
*
Yang Kuei-Mei
Yang Kuei-mei (; born 6 September 1959) is a Taiwanese people, Taiwanese actress and television host. She has had starring roles in ''Eat Drink Man Woman'', ''Vive L'Amour'', and ''The Hole (1998 film), The Hole''.
Yang has received several awa ...
as Girl in hotel
[Scott, A. O]
"Movie Review - The River"
''movies.nytimes.com''. July 27, 2001. Retrieved 2010-12-13.
Production
The family configuration in this film also appeared in director Tsai Ming-liang's previous film, ''
Rebels of the Neon God
''Rebels of the Neon God'' () is a 1992 Taiwanese drama film written and directed by Tsai Ming-liang in his feature film directorial debut. It stars Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Chao-jung, and Jen Chang-bin.
Plot
A young man, Hsiao-Kang, attends a cram s ...
'', and would appear again in ''
What Time Is It There?
''What Time Is It There?'' is a 2001 Taiwanese film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It stars Lee Kang-sheng, Chen Shiang-chyi, and Lu Yi-ching.
Plot
Hsiao-kang is a street vendor in Taipei who sells watches out of a briefcase. His father dies. Soon ...
'', with the same three actors.
Tsai decided to incorporate neck pain into ''The River'' when his star actor, Lee Kang-sheng, had a similar neck problem for nine months prior to shooting Tsai's ''
Vive L'Amour
''Vive L'Amour'' is a 1994 Cinema of Taiwan, Taiwanese New Wave film directed by Tsai Ming-liang. It is Tsai's second feature film and premiered at the 51st Venice International Film Festival, where it won the prestigious Golden Lion. The film is a ...
''. After ''Vive L'Amour'' was completed, they immediately began work on ''The River''.
According to Tsai, he had a difficult time convincing actor Miao Tien (who plays the father) to appear in the film. Miao was reluctant because his character was
homosexual
Homosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between members of the same sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions" to peop ...
. However, he eventually agreed to take the part and ended up doing some research for it by visiting
gay bar
A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) clientele; the term ''gay'' is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBT communities.
Gay bars once served as ...
s and saunas.
The film was first released in 1997
[Ventura, Elbert]
"The River - Review"
''allmovie.com''. Retrieved 2010-12-13. and opened in the United States in 2001.
Reception
''The River'' won the
Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize award at the
47th Berlin International Film Festival
The 47th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 13 to 24 February 1997. The Golden Bear was awarded to Canadian-American film ''The People vs. Larry Flynt'' directed by Miloš Forman. The retrospective dedicated to Austrian film ...
.
[Darke, Chris. ]
Light Readings: Film Criticism and Screen Arts
' (Wallflower Press, 2000), p. 64.
Overall, it was well received by critics and has a 70% rating at
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
based on 10 reviews. ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
A. O. Scott wrote that, "Whether or not ''The River'' is, as some critics have claimed, Mr. Tsai's masterpiece, it is an excellent introduction to his oblique narrative style, his favored themes and his careful, lyrical visual sensibility."
Critics focused on the film's themes of
loneliness
Loneliness is an unpleasant emotional response to perceived isolation. Loneliness is also described as social paina psychological mechanism which motivates individuals to seek social connections. It is often associated with a perceived lack ...
,
alienation, and
isolation, as well as the lack of dialogue and action which represented the family members' disconnect with each other.
["Film Clips"](_blank)
''sfgate.com'', October 26, 2001. Retrieved 2010-12-13. Allmovie
AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne.
History
AllMovie was founded by popular-cult ...
said that: "Perhaps the most harrowing of Tsai Ming-Liang's meditations on urban isolation and communication breakdown, ''The River'' is a reliably demanding exponent of the Taiwanese filmmaker's cinema ... The movie trains the director's unblinking gaze on the breakdown of the
nuclear family
A nuclear family, elementary family, cereal-packet family or conjugal family is a family group consisting of parents and their children (one or more), typically living in one home residence. It is in contrast to a single-parent family, the larger ...
."
Critics also commented on the film's slow pace, calling it "punishing" and "difficult," but still praised Tsai Ming-liang's style of directing.
According to Edward Guthmann of the ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
'': "Tsai is so adept at pacing and mood, and so good at capturing a sense of yearning, that his film draws us in despite its unusually long takes and sparse cutting."
A. O. Scott concluded his review with:
"he film is
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
worth waiting for. The pace of ''The River'' is slow, and Mr. Tsai's minimal camera movement and deliberate editing may take some getting used to, especially in an era of hectic cutting and hand-held hyperactivity. But he is one of those filmmakers whose visions, once encountered, are hard to shake, a rare director who seems, even at this late date, to be reinventing the medium and rediscovering the world."
Tsai himself said that he received a lot of criticism for ''The River''. He said that, in addition to some people disliking it because of the
incest
Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adoption ...
scene, homosexuals and
feminist
Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...
s also disliked it for other reasons. Lee Kang-sheng's father called it a "
porn movie
Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include erotical ...
."
In the
British Film Institute
The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...
's 2012 ''
Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' polls of the greatest films ever made, ''The River'' received top-10 votes from two critics and two directors.
References
External links
*
*
*
''The River'' trailerat movies.nytimes.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:River, The
1997 films
1997 drama films
Films about dysfunctional families
Films directed by Tsai Ming-liang
Gay-related films
1990s Mandarin-language films
Taiwanese LGBT-related films
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winners
Central Motion Picture Corporation films
Films with screenplays by Tsai Ming-liang