Search - The Hole on DVD

Something a little different can be a good thing.

J. Ballou | 01/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I saw this movie as part of a double feature. They first showed Hal Hartley's "Book of Life" followed by a 10 minute intermission and then they showed "The Hole". For a movie I almost walked out on before it started, I was happy I stayed even with the subtitles. This and Hartley's movie were part of a End of the Millenium Film series produced by a French company. (it has been some time and forget the details).This movie is about the annoyances of close living quarters, for anyone who has had a noisy upstairs neighbor knows what I'm talking about (next time live on the top floor). But this movie also brings up the idea of what can bring two people together, no matter what keeps them apart, they just need a little help to find one another.There is a lot of interesting camera work and character development. Where it goes I don't always know, but I am more than willing to watch it again. Purely enlightening experience. There are also musical dance sequences that come in to break up the scenes and carry the film through.Definately worth seeing, maybe not owning."

Hole of loneliness

kuroneko1 | Istanbul Turkey | 03/29/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Tsai ming liang's hole is a film about loneliness that is set somewhere in Taipei where people are advised to leave by government. Reason is a A disease that pass from the bugs which causes strange changes in people's life styles like fear of light.
We witness the main character as the lonely person who refuses to leave the flat which he lives.Only a hand ful people remain in the area and the place he works is also deserted too and only open shop seems to be his. He is visited by a friendly cat and a customer who asks for products that are no longer sold in the market. Later in order to get some pipe work done, a hole is dug in his flat thus enabling him to indirectly communicate with the lady that lives alone downstairs.He later starts to live around this hole in his room.
Tsai Ming Liang uses cameras and colours in order to create an environment that is lonely, very hot and soaked with sweatthat is only washed by rain once a while. Interestingly, he uses some old style cha cha songs (by a famous Chinese singer) and dance accompanied to it in order to inform more about the characters lives somehow. For example during those sessions we learn that the lady character is divorced .( the words like, dont call me tiger lady etc)
Film also has some science fiction tendencies due to the strange illness that turns people in to 'roaches living in dark, using hands as extra feet etc and taken out of their small dark places by paramedics. But again it is a an art house film and especially not made for the everyone's liking, do not expect much about this genre.
In short , hole is an interesting movie and a good watch. But it is not your average Chinese movie even in art house standarts. It may dissapoint and bore some people but may also amuse many others."

Poor transfer

E.W. | San Francisco, CA, USA | 09/14/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"a really terrific movie, as everyone here's stated. I saw the film on its theatrical release in the same double feature a lot of people speak of. But on buying the DVD, I was disappointed at the dark, muddy transfer. The dance sequences are fairly well-lit, but a number of the scenes are so dark it's difficult to tell what's going on."

The development of a hole...

Kim Anehall | Chicago, IL USA | 02/17/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The government wants to quarantine an area after an outbreak of Taiwan Fever and they will turn off the water in the area after New Years Eve of 2000, which is seven days away. However, some people refuse to leave their homes as they have lived there for a long time. A young man, who lives in the quarantined area, goes about his mundane life as he feeds the cat, goes to work, eats, and sleeps. When the plumber knocks on his door due to a water leakage in the apartment complex it is about to little by little change his daily life style. The plumber creates a small hole that leads to the apartment downstairs where a young woman lives. The young woman is first very annoyed by the hole in her ceiling, but as time goes by she begins to communicate with the young man upstairs. Hole is not an ordinary cinematic experience as it uses shots that seem to go on forever, which instill a feeling of boredom and lifelessness. These long shots are enhanced by the rain that keeps falling non-stop in the background creating an illusion of a invisible wall that no one can escape. Simultaneously the radio and TV are spitting out threatening information in regards to the rare disease in the area, which is terrorizing the minds of the audience. The director Tsai creates an artificial imprisonment where the audience can fall into the same trap as the characters as they struggle with their coexistence through the hole, which is occasionally interrupted by colorful hallucination like scenes of song and dance. This leaves the audience with a remarkable cinematic experience as they view the development of the hole."