[tps_title]2. The Hole (1998)[/tps_title]
Dir. Tsai Ming-liang
Malaysian Chinese director Tsai Ming-liang has made a name for himself on the art-house circuit for his measured reflections on alienation and loneliness. His 1998 film The Hole is no exception. The film follows two isolated Taiwanese citizens who lock themselves up in their apartments after the rest of their building is evacuated following the arrival of a terrible disease. When a hole forms between their apartments, they finally discover the human contact that has been lacking in their lives for so long. The Hole is a slow, deliberate film full of long, dream-like takes. But interspersed with these scenes are sporadic Technicolor musical sequences where they sing and dance to love songs by Grace Chang. These sequences deliberately clash with the rest of the film, much like how a Busby Berkeley dance number would in an Ingmar Bergman film. But they express the innermost thoughts and yearnings of these characters who have become so lost in their own loneliness that the only surcease they can find is in their own imaginations.
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