The River

Rating:
Summary: Another dud from an overrated director.
Review: ...Ming-liang Tsai's films drag along endlessly with no direction and, quite frankly, no real acting. The River is a story which could have been easily and effectively told in 30 minutes, but instead it drags on for two hours. Scenes are needlessly drawn out and tell the viewer rather little. This is not avant-garde or alternative film making...

Rating:
Summary: slow agonying fast forward-button movie watching experience
Review: i love artistic movies...but what happened to this one? it's a strange movie indeed. viewing from an artistic point of view, it may make some sense, but with lots of forwarding. if you like slow artsy movie, watch "scent of green papaya" instead.

Rating:
Summary: don't pay attention to most of these other reviews
Review: It seems like most everyone else reviewing this film missed the point entirely. If the film seems dead like the dummy, then why do you think the dummy was in the film in the first place? The characters are emotionally dead, floating down the river (of life?) like the dummy. Everything means something. Tsai Ming-Liang is not interested in how crazy he can make the camera move. He is one of the few directors I have seen whose films are a reaction AGAINST action, and by action I mean the Tarantino/Rodriguez-style. Which is not to say I don't admire those directors. Ming-Liang's films just hold so much SUBTLETY. The long shots and little camera movement force the viewer not to merely watch but to participate. Why is the camera set up this way? What am I watching? Why am I watching it? In other words, he forces the viewer to make the associations normally presented surface-level to the viewer of most other films. Apparently Wong Kar-Wai is supposed to be the new Godard. But Godard was always more into filming "essays" and filming in such a way that was supposedly not "allowed." So I believe Ming-Liang's films are much closer to Godard's style in that they are reactions against the current norm. He is the son of Ozu and Antonioni, with a complete aesthetic, technical, and emotional motivation behind his style. Ming-Liang is one of the most slept on directors working today. If you have a true love for cinema, not just Kevin Smith, Tarantino, and David Lynch, if you can appreciate a thin line between comedy and drama, if you can allow yourself to be sculpted into a new form of viewing cinema, just as the directors of the Nouvelle Vague once did, then... you get the idea.

Rating:
Summary: duh...the reviewer apes the film unintentionally
Review: it's amazing to me how you can summarize this film so matter of factly and made it through it, but can't realize that your emotional response to it was forecoded by the director. do you think he really wanted you to be mesmerized in the western-commodity-entertainment sense of a viewing experience? to fully appreciate tsai's masterpiece, we have to develop a new viewing strategy descendant from antonioni, ozu, etc. if you need a unifying thread to titillate your sense of linear narrative continuity, try the ubiquity of water in its myriad forms and how that relates to the despair and utter alienation of the characters both constricted by a colonized city that has grown too fast to maintain and the tyranny of the oedipal family scenario as it is linked to the very same capitalistic regime. it is a profound meditation on what happens to the spirit in this highly specific and contextualized allegory shot through with mise-en-scene punning and starkly lyrical use of a poetics of absence. try to get on an equation with the artist not just foist your own expectations on the work and then its secrets will flourish.

Rating:
Summary: slow agonying fast forward-button movie watching experience
Review: Ming-Liang Tsai's 'The River' is the story of Xiao-Kang, his father, and his mother. Although the three share the same tiny apartment, they do not actually "live" together, in the sense that there seems to be no relationship at all between them.

The father has a completely ordinary life during the day (however we never actually learn what he does for a living), and leads a secret life at night roaming Taipei's gay bathhouses. As a B-plot, dad is on a mission to stop his bedroom ceiling from leaking water from the apartment above him.

Xiao-Kang's mother works as an elevator operator. There's hardly a moment where you see her conversing or interacting with her husband, which might explain why she has undertaken an affair with a pornographer. The fact that her husband is secretly gay only serves to reinforce the viewer's belief that she is unsatisfied at home.

Then there's the main character, Xiao-Kang, a young man who seems very detached from his mother, father, and everybody else in general. At the start of the movie, he becomes reacquainted with an actress friend of his. She brings him to the set of her next movie, where the director spends half her day trying to film a dead corpse floating down the Tansui River. After many unsuccessful attempts, the director decides that the dummy being used as the dead corpse just does not look genuine enough to work in her film.

The river is the symbolic focal point of the movie. Years of pollution has turned it into a stagnating cesspool. As the movie trailer says, the river represents life. Roughly, it says this: You can either stagnate, or begin again anew... you can either float to the top, or sink straight to the bottom. This is a very inciteful and poetic philosophy behind the idea of the film. The only problem is that the movie does not make a strong enough attempt to illustrate upon this concept.

So the next thing we know, Xiao-Kang is quietly eating lunch on the set of the movie. The director sits next to him and sees her opportunity. She tries to coerce him to act as a replacement for the dummy. At first Kang is unwilling, saying that the river is filthy, but easily gives in after two or three more tries from the director.

The plot begins to unfold during the next couple days after Kang's role in the river. He begins feeling excruciating neck and upper back pains. The pain is unexplainable, and even a trip to the local acupuncturist has no effect. So Xiao-Kang and his father decide to find treatment outside the city. Their journey takes them to a religious temple, where hopefully a Master Liu can pray the young man's inner demons out. Since Master Liu takes days to come up with a diagnosis, father and son spend the next few days away from home.

It's at this point that the movie starts to lose itself. Towards the end of the movie, Kang takes a trip out to the local sauna, probably just to unwind and take his mind off his neck pains. We see him entering a room with a man inside. Lo and behold, the writers decide to make our main character gay. This comes very unexpectedly, not just because of the fact that earlier in the film we see Kang having a shag-session with his actress friend, but also because the film gives no indication (up to this point) of his homosexuality. Little do we know that the man is Kang's own father.

Now, keep in mind, I am NOT giving this film 1 star because there are gay characters and a sex scene. I give it 1 star because of the twist ending. The reactions from both actors when they initially realize the incident seems completely ungenuine. Kang doesn't seem shocked or traumatized in the least bit. At the point where the audience's attention is hooked, the movie decides to end five minutes later. No problems are solved, no lessons are learned, nothing nothing nothing!

Although the film has its cinematographic moments, it gets offset by the long-winded scenes that are in dire need of proper editing. We'll see scenes where the Kang is walking for minutes with no dialogue and no background music. In another scene we'll see the father lying in bed, no dialogue no music, for what seems to be eternity! The pacing of this film is horribly beyond sluggish. It becomes aggravating up to the point where I have to fast forward the last half of the film.

There are many instances where you have to turn up the brightness on your TV because the lighting is so poor. It could be because of the DVD transfer, but somehow I doubt it. Combine the pitch dark with scenes that last over five minutes, and you've certainly got yourself a disaster.

Well, to sum up, I think what 'The River' tries to show is a family that is initially separated, but like all others, begins to become more of a unit when a strong enough situation presents itself... in this case Kang's neck pains. The theme behind the film is most likely loneliness. We never see Xiao-Kang with any friends other than the actress in the beginning, and his father is equally as reclusive. The actress must not be an important part of the story because she becomes disposed of after the first 20 minutes. The mother finds companionship only with a man who represents lust. How deep could that relationship possibly be? I suppose 'The River' also tries to give its characters sympathy by depicting the near-poverty conditions of the city. All in all, I think the attempts are all very weak and unconvincing.

>>> 1 star. Many of the cinematic techniques that were intended to give this film some creative edge failed. Characters were unemotional and lacked depth. This film just feels "dead" like the plastic dummy in the river. I would pass on this one.

- the enlightened one

Rating:
Summary: Undramatic and unmoving.
Review: Ming-Liang Tsai's 'The River' is the story of Xiao-Kang, his father, and his mother. Although the three share the same tiny apartment, they do not actually "live" together, in the sense that there seems to be no relationship at all between them.

The father has a completely ordinary life during the day (however we never actually learn what he does for a living), and leads a secret life at night roaming Taipei's gay bathhouses. As a B-plot, dad is on a mission to stop his bedroom ceiling from leaking water from the apartment above him.

Xiao-Kang's mother works as an elevator operator. There's hardly a moment where you see her conversing or interacting with her husband, which might explain why she has undertaken an affair with a pornographer. The fact that her husband is secretly gay only serves to reinforce the viewer's belief that she is unsatisfied at home.

Then there's the main character, Xiao-Kang, a young man who seems very detached from his mother, father, and everybody else in general. At the start of the movie, he becomes reacquainted with an actress friend of his. She brings him to the set of her next movie, where the director spends half her day trying to film a dead corpse floating down the Tansui River. After many unsuccessful attempts, the director decides that the dummy being used as the dead corpse just does not look genuine enough to work in her film.

The river is the symbolic focal point of the movie. Years of pollution has turned it into a stagnating cesspool. As the movie trailer says, the river represents life. Roughly, it says this: You can either stagnate, or begin again anew... you can either float to the top, or sink straight to the bottom. This is a very inciteful and poetic philosophy behind the idea of the film. The only problem is that the movie does not make a strong enough attempt to illustrate upon this concept.

So the next thing we know, Xiao-Kang is quietly eating lunch on the set of the movie. The director sits next to him and sees her opportunity. She tries to coerce him to act as a replacement for the dummy. At first Kang is unwilling, saying that the river is filthy, but easily gives in after two or three more tries from the director.

The plot begins to unfold during the next couple days after Kang's role in the river. He begins feeling excruciating neck and upper back pains. The pain is unexplainable, and even a trip to the local acupuncturist has no effect. So Xiao-Kang and his father decide to find treatment outside the city. Their journey takes them to a religious temple, where hopefully a Master Liu can pray the young man's inner demons out. Since Master Liu takes days to come up with a diagnosis, father and son spend the next few days away from home.

It's at this point that the movie starts to lose itself. Towards the end of the movie, Kang takes a trip out to the local sauna, probably just to unwind and take his mind off his neck pains. We see him entering a room with a man inside. Lo and behold, the writers decide to make our main character gay. This comes very unexpectedly, not just because of the fact that earlier in the film we see Kang having a shag-session with his actress friend, but also because the film gives no indication (up to this point) of his homosexuality. Little do we know that the man is Kang's own father.

Now, keep in mind, I am NOT giving this film 1 star because there are gay characters and a sex scene. I give it 1 star because of the twist ending. The reactions from both actors when they initially realize the incident seems completely ungenuine. Kang doesn't seem shocked or traumatized in the least bit. At the point where the audience's attention is hooked, the movie decides to end five minutes later. No problems are solved, no lessons are learned, nothing nothing nothing!

Although the film has its cinematographic moments, it gets offset by the long-winded scenes that are in dire need of proper editing. We'll see scenes where the Kang is walking for minutes with no dialogue and no background music. In another scene we'll see the father lying in bed, no dialogue no music, for what seems to be eternity! The pacing of this film is horribly beyond sluggish. It becomes aggravating up to the point where I have to fast forward the last half of the film.

There are many instances where you have to turn up the brightness on your TV because the lighting is so poor. It could be because of the DVD transfer, but somehow I doubt it. Combine the pitch dark with scenes that last over five minutes, and you've certainly got yourself a disaster.

Well, to sum up, I think what 'The River' tries to show is a family that is initially separated, but like all others, begins to become more of a unit when a strong enough situation presents itself... in this case Kang's neck pains. The theme behind the film is most likely loneliness. We never see Xiao-Kang with any friends other than the actress in the beginning, and his father is equally as reclusive. The actress must not be an important part of the story because she becomes disposed of after the first 20 minutes. The mother finds companionship only with a man who represents lust. How deep could that relationship possibly be? I suppose 'The River' also tries to give its characters sympathy by depicting the near-poverty conditions of the city. All in all, I think the attempts are all very weak and unconvincing.

>>> 1 star. Many of the cinematic techniques that were intended to give this film some creative edge failed. Characters were unemotional and lacked depth. This film just feels "dead" like the plastic dummy in the river. I would pass on this one.

- the enlightened one

Rating:
Summary: You Won't Forget It
Review: This movie is not what we Westerners are accustomed to in movies, therefore we tend to dismiss it. We like all emotions openly displayed. lots of dialogue and the plot must be resolved.
You will find none of this in this movie, but it is certainly worth viewing and once you understand the reason for the lack of interaction between characters, it does make sense.

Another aspect that makes the movie difficult is the long scenes when nothing is happening on the screen. That was the director's approach.

The family is totally disfunctional as a unit. The parents never speak to each other, they all eat alone, and they function in their own little worlds with virtually no emotion.
Even sex is random with no emotions attached.

After the encounter between the son and the father, no one speaks of it and life continues on as before. There is no resolution to anything. That is the horror of the whole movie.