THE RIVER (1997)

Cast

Plot

Hip young Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang follows up "Rebels of a Neon God" and "Vive L'Amour" with this bleak but beautifully made study of dysfunctional family life and urban isolation. Unemployed Xiao-kang shares a Taipei apartment with his father, who frequents the city's gay saunas, and his mother, who's engaged in an unhappy affair with a pornographer. After plunging into the polluted Tanshui River, Xiao-kang develops an excruciating and ever-worsening pain in the neck, while his father grows obsessed with protecting his bedroom ceiling against a leak from the upstairs flat. Surreally stunning.