THE HOLE (Taiwan/French with subtitles)
A review by Mark R. Leeper in bullet-list form
from the Toronto Internation Film Festival
CAPSULE: A science fiction allegory. At the Millennium a lethal contagious virus has hit Taiwan. Officials have cut off water and other services to the center of contagion. Life there devolves and degenerates. A man in an apartment has a hole in his floor and with it harasses his downstairs neighbor. A slow but harrowing film to be missed if possible. Rating: 2 (0 to 10), low -1 (-4 to +4)
- The Taiwan Virus is ravaging Taiwan and the part of the city that is the center of the contagion has been evacuated of anyone who will go. One apartment building still houses people. A woman, formerly an office worker, (Yang Kuei-mei) is tormented by her upstairs neighbor (Lee Kang-sheng) who has a hole cut by a plumber in the floor and is using it as a drain. Neighbor runs a small failing grocery store. - To make things more depressing, it is constantly raining hard. - Upstairs neighbor vomits through, pours water, etc. A small and almost entirely one-sided war starts. Allegory about callousness and selfishness. - Woman is living on a pile of rolls of toilet tissue. - Incongruous songs added to show downstairs neighbors dreams. These are the songs of popular Taiwanese singer Grace Chang. - Apartment is falling apart. Wallpaper is separating from walls. Plumbing is failing. - Boredom shown by long cuts in which nothing happens. A lot of film seems to be used up. - This story might have been done much better as a ten-minute animated film. - Stars are considered to be great dramatic actors by one reviewer. - This film seems longer at 95 minutes most two-hour films.
Mark R. Leeper
mleeper@lucent.com
Copyright 1998 Mark R. Leeper
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