Hsiao-Kang lives in a Taipei apartment with his parents, who rarely speak to
each other and live separate lives. His mother works as an elevator attendant,
his father seeks pleasure in the city's gay saunas and Hsiao-Kang just drifts
through life. While playing an extra in a film as a floating corpse, Hsiao-Kang
develops a terrible pain in his neck... Director Tsai Ming-Liang has fashioned
a probing, poetic story to shattering emotional effect. "A wonderfully weird
Taiwanese fable about hope and despair... mesmerizes and haunts the memory." --
Nigel Andrews, The Financial Times.
The River
