" we are grateful that we have the songs of grace chan to comfort us . " starring lee kang-sheng , yang kuei-mei directed by tsai ming-liang written by tsai and yang ping-ying cinematography by liao peng-jung taiwan , 24/12/99 . the millenium approaches . an incessant downpour batters an unnamed city . sectors of the city are being sealed , quarantined due to the onset of a mysterious virus . the virus causes people to act like insects : they crawl about on all fours , hide from bright lights , huddle in damp corners . the water supply to the quarantined zones will be cut off in a week's time . residents are advised to evacuate the area , asap . this premise--kafka by way of cronenberg--is the background for the hole , which could have been a great movie , but , sadly , <NEG> ends up as a waste of good ideas </NEG> . the quick sketch above suggests a dark , absurd , hallucinatory near-future parable of life in the late 20th century ; in execution , however , it is nothing like that . the virus , the evacuation , the visual possiblities of the deluge : these are all relegated to the background . instead , the hole focuses on the lives--for want of a better word--of a man ( lee kang-sheng ) and a woman ( yang kuei-mei ) who live in the same apartment building , and who have no personalities . the entire movie taks place in settings that are uniformly ugly and sterile : the charmless rooms and corridors of a post-industrial apartment complex , photographed to look as dim and dingy as possible . it's a vivid setting , but an <NEG> unappealing </NEG> one , especially with the monotonous hiss of falling rain and the gurgle of drainage pipes in the background . the man lives in the apartment directly above the woman's . one day , a repairman investigating a leak leaves a small hole in the floor of the man's living room , opening into the ceiling of the woman's living room . this hole--symbol of the solitary opening in the character's lonely , compartmented lives--allows them to interact in unusual ( and mostly non-verbal ) ways . example : the man , suffering from the onset of the virus ( or so i assume--everything is obscure in this movie ) vomits through the hole . the woman , wandering around in the dark , accidentally puts her hand on his vomit , and then cleans it up . this is what passes for meaningful communication . and they say romance is dead . much of the film does not even focus on their interactions , such as they are . <NEG> there is almost no dialogue and we learn next to nothing about these people </NEG> . they are ciphers . instead , we are treated to long takes in which we witness their miserable lives ; we watch , for instance , as the woman boils some water , pours it onto some noodles , then eats the noodles . ( this is as fascinating as it sounds . ) offered as counterpoint--or perhaps relief--to these dreary sequences are a series of musical numbers , fantasies in which the woman lip-synchs to pop songs by grace chan ( popular , so i'm told , in 1950s' china ) . she prances around in grimy hallways and grungy stairwells , incronguously lit by cheerfully bright spotlights . sometimes , in these fantasies , she is joined by the man . these scenes are presumably intended to be bright and fanciful , sharply contrasting the dreariness of reality , but <NEG> they fail </NEG> . when the man and the woman dance , it seems half-hearted and listless . astaire and rogers this is not . even in imagination , these people are <NEG> numb , weary , boring </NEG> . the hole is part of the 'collection 2000' series , a group of films commissioned by french tv station la sept arte on the subject of the millenium . others include canada's last night , brazil's midnight , and american hal hartley's the book of life . the book of life is the only other one that i have seen , and it is infinitely superior to the taiwanese entry . witty , energetic , humane , it makes the the hole seem ( ahem ) empty . american movies with nothing to say try to disguise their lack of content with flashy movements , quick cuts , superficial emotions . foreign movies with nothing to say do what the hole does : they <NEG> point the camera at something of minimal interest for unbelievably long periods of time </NEG> , and call it art . the hole is self-evidently a film about alienation , and perhaps director tsai ming-liang wants the audience to share in his characters' alienation . if so , he succeeds . perhaps it is a challenge : he dares us to enjoy this movie , despite his best attempts to ensure that we don't . if it was a challenge , i wasn't up for it .
