Pain, in and of itself, is terrible, but more so when you can’t determine the solution. The River is centered around the mysterious neck pain that a young man suffers out of the blue, but through writer-director Tsai Ming-liang’s lens, the pain is made much more poignant as it seems he’s all alone in dealing with the issue, alienated from others, tainted from something that was supposed to be life-giving, yet he’s not the only one that’s lonely. While the film takes the characters’ means in finding connection to the extreme, The River does capture the pain of modern day loneliness.
Synopsis
A young man develops severe neck pain after swimming in a polluted river for a movie shoot, but nobody can provide him any relief.
Storyline
After volunteering to float in a polluted river for a film shoot, Hsiao-Kang develops a mysterious pain in his neck that is unable to be relieved by any of the solutions he and his dysfunctional parents try out.
TLDR
Well… That’s one hell of a way to deal with pain.
What stands out
Given that the film is titled the way it is, water is an important motif.
