/// Tsai Ming-liang (Chinese: 蔡明亮; pinyin: Cài Míngliàng) (born 1957) PART I ///

I recently watched Tsai Ming Liang's 'The Hole' again (thanks to The Auteurs ), and I had forgotten how wonderful it is. 'The Hole' is mostly comprised of long takes, is fairly slow, grey, dark and depressing - however, Tsai places short, camp, projected phantasy and surreal scenes locked between (such as the youtube clip posted above), which works in constructing a truly inspired film.

The plot revolves around a weird virus which has spread around Taipei; subsequently the narrative centres around an upstairs neighbour who watches the woman downstairs in their separate quarantined spaces, through a hole in the floor. Obviously voyeurism plays a large role in the film, along with narcissism (from the camp clips, it seems clear that the woman creates these sexualised phantasies along with her watcher). Water is also used as an important allegory throughout the film, alluding to Susan Sontag's 'Illness as Metaphor' theory, and it also works in adding to the imposing and dispairing situation which our protagonists are faced with.

Tsai Ming Liang, still from 'The Hole', 1998

'The Hole,' manages to embody an utterly surrealist charm to it, whilst remaining thoroughly pragmatic, which for me, proves Tsai's status of being one of the most innovative directors of our time.

Tsai Ming Liang, Still from 'The Hole', 1998
(and I want this dress...)