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The Falls (2021)The Falls (2021)

The Falls (2021)

Mother and daughter navigate a fraught relationship in this quietly beautiful drama

Drama, Family

best
THE VERY BEST

8.0

movie

Taiwan, United States of America
Mandarin
Dramatic, Emotional, Slow
2021
Chung Mong-hong
Alyssa Chia, Chen Yiwen, Gingle Wang
129 min

Synopsis

rotten tomatoes
imdb
wikipedia
After having to quarantine together during COVID-19, a mother and daughter are forced to confront their personal obstacles and relationship tensions.

Our Take

8.0
The Staff

All the synopses going around the internet won’t fail to let you know that The Falls takes place at the height of the COVID-19 crisis. The film is certainly marketed that way, with commercial posters featuring the leads in ubiquitous face masks, socially distanced from the blurred crowd. 

But interestingly, The Falls is not just a situational, pandemic-era story. More than anything else, it tells the story of Pin-wen and Xiao Jing, mother and daughter who, despite previously living a life of comfort, are now dealt with unfavorable circumstances (exacerbated but not entirely caused by the pandemic). Now, they are forced to navigate life with only each other, and it’s in the isolation they instate from the rest of the world do they forge a genuine and heartwrenching bond any and all family members will immediately recognize and perhaps even sympathize with. 

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