08-17-2009, 08:52 AM
The Hole: 2000 Seen By ... by Ming-liang Tsai (1998)
Yes, the title ends with an ellipsis. Just so you know.
And yes, this was the most depressing movie I've ever seen.
In a big decaying tenement building, a single guy lives in a crummy apartment directly above a single girl in her crummy apartment. They don't really interact throughout the movie except for some very brief encounters. We're in a near-future epidemic-ravaged world. There's a virus going around that makes infected people scurry around like cockroaches. The guy spends his days doing pretty much nothing. The girl does the same, except for some weird lip-synching song-and-dance numbers -- which aren't half bad. But the rest of the scenes are incredibly static. The director really wants to sock home the bleak despair of existence by showing you that nothing ever happens. After two hours, I was convinced. Oh, the title. The guy tries to fix a water leak in his floor and creates a small hole that connects his apartment to the girl's apartment below. Whoop-dee-dah. Never has so little been done with a decent plot device. I'd reveal a bit more of where the movie heads, except that it doesn't go anywhere.
Yes, the title ends with an ellipsis. Just so you know.
And yes, this was the most depressing movie I've ever seen.
In a big decaying tenement building, a single guy lives in a crummy apartment directly above a single girl in her crummy apartment. They don't really interact throughout the movie except for some very brief encounters. We're in a near-future epidemic-ravaged world. There's a virus going around that makes infected people scurry around like cockroaches. The guy spends his days doing pretty much nothing. The girl does the same, except for some weird lip-synching song-and-dance numbers -- which aren't half bad. But the rest of the scenes are incredibly static. The director really wants to sock home the bleak despair of existence by showing you that nothing ever happens. After two hours, I was convinced. Oh, the title. The guy tries to fix a water leak in his floor and creates a small hole that connects his apartment to the girl's apartment below. Whoop-dee-dah. Never has so little been done with a decent plot device. I'd reveal a bit more of where the movie heads, except that it doesn't go anywhere.
mt041