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Actors: Kang-sheng Lee, Yi-Ching Lu, Tien Miao
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about The River (1997) |
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This movie (He liu), co-written and directed by Ming-liang Tsai in 1997, won the Special Jury Prizes of the 1997 Berlin and Chicago International Film festivals.
Kang-Sheng lives with his parents in a small apartment and the communication between the members of this family is reduced to the bare minimum. The father regularly cheats on his wife with young male prostitutes. One day, Kang-Sheng, by request of a film director, decides to swim in a polluted river. From this day on, the young boy will suffer from a lancinating pain in the neck.
Accompanied by his father, Kang-Sheng will see physical therapists, doctors followers of the Western and Chinese medicine. Finally, helpless in front of his distress and his pain, Kang-Sheng's father brings his son to a temple and asks the priests to cure him. During the following night, the father and the son meet in the sauna of the hotel and have a sexual intercourse.
--Daniel Staebler, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of The River (1997) |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- 1980's-1999
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Taboo Sex Story?
Yes
Kind of sex:
- incest
- Two guys MAKING OUT (squish squish!)
Brain/Body not working?
- physical disability
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Age:
- 20's-30's
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Body type
- (man) very skinny
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Chinese
How sensitive is this character?
- soggy whimpering jelly muffin
Physique
- physically sick
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- brunette (Black)
Body type
- (man) fat
How much in movie?
- 80%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Chinese
Setting
Asia/Pacific/Middle East
Yes
Asian country:
- China
Water?
Yes
Water:
- river
City?
Yes
City:
- dirty, grimy (like New York)
Misc setting
- resort/hotel
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
Movie makes you feel...
- thoughtful
Sex/nudity in movie?
Yes
Non-American film?
Yes
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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