the last movie you expect to be a musical (not complaining)
Cinemas
Directed by Tsai Ming-liang
The Hole
洞
An atmospheric, slow-burn drama.
Drama
Romance
Science Fiction
1999
1h 35m
In the final days of the year 1999, almost everyone in Taiwan has died from a strange plague that ravished the island. As rain pours down relentlessly, a single man is stuck with an unfinished plumbing job and a hole in his floor. This results in a very odd relationship with the woman who lives below him.
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Cast & crew
6What people say
Human beings as bugs, packed tightly away, taking refuge along the musty crevices of existential solitude. All it takes is one person to reach out and pull us up from the depths of isolation to recapture the essence of what it means to be alive in this world; slow dancing to an old song with a perpetual downpour visible just beyond our windows, but inside these four walls, the sun is shining bright.
A shy romantic and a quiet slacker live in quarantine, secluded by rain and decay, almost alone, in a void. An accident gives them a glimpse of each other, and slowly but surely, through happenstance, continual observation, and occasional humanity, they eventually come together. There are so many strange ways you could take this film, but what stood out to me is the metaphor it illustrates for loneliness and the fear of personal connection. A disease keeps these two strangers isolated, but it also drives them together, with the ineptitude of a plumber helping that along. As they continually interact because of this hole left between their apartments, their relationship shifts. In the urban decay (in the case of the lower apartment, a literal sort of falling apart is going on), these two strangers only know each other from glimpses and forced interactions, necessitated by inconvenience.But interest strikes the upper apartment's inhabitant, and disease the lower. Ingenuity, perseverance, and imagination slowly draw them together.
Common questions
What is The Hole about?+
Set in a rain-drenched, quarantined Taipei, the film follows two isolated neighbors who forge an unexpected connection after a plumbing repairman leaves a hole in the apartment floor.
Who directed The Hole?+
The film was directed by Tsai Ming-liang, a prominent figure in the Taiwanese New Wave, in 1998.
Is The Hole a musical?+
While primarily a somber drama, the film features surreal, choreographed musical sequences that contrast with its gritty, minimalist tone.
