Tsai Ming-Liang’s “The Hole”
Movie review by Dennis D. McDonald
There’s a pandemic in early 1990s Taiwan. We listen as a radio announcer describes how some areas must face the shut-off of water. The movie focuses on a man and woman who live in a crumbling apartment building. The man lives in the apartment above, the woman below. Almost by accident, a small hole opens in the man’s living room floor. The woman sees this hole after complaining that her walls are being flooded by water flowing from above.
They seldom speak as a relationship of sorts develops between the two over the course of the movie, which takes place in the apartment rooms, hallways, and in the basement where the man runs a small seldom-visited bodega.
The movie is punctuated throughout by the woman breaking into old-fashioned nightclub song and dance numbers, sometimes accompanied by a male or female chorus.
If you have seen the director’s Goodbye, Dragon Inn, you might have some idea of what to expect—a slowly unfolding movie, little dialog, scenes well framed with minimal action. The differences are clear, however. Goodbye, Dragon Inn features many scenes that focus on the vast interior spaces of a decrepit movie theatre. The Hole focuses on the more “intimate” spaces of the apartment building and its interior spaces, all against a backdrop of constantly heard but rarely seen rainfall.
Except, The Hole has the musical numbers. The mousy toilet-paper-collecting woman transforms into a lithe, coquettish, sequin-clad singer as she vamps about the room and hallways, sometimes accompanied by nightclub-style dancers.
“Bizarre” does not begin to describe these sequences, but somehow they make sense in an already surreal situation that only on the surface appears grounded in reality. Why are these two persisting in staying in this crumbling apartment building? How do they survive given the impending cut-off of water? How come the electricity is still on?
Such things don’t matter. I could not help but be amused by the weirdness of it all and the feeble attempts being made by the main characters to deal with unfolding events and how to deal with a hole in the ceiling through which glimpses of the two main characters were available—and through which water, bug spray, vomit, and even a human leg could protrude.
Perhaps the message of this odd but entertaining film is simply this: people can get used to almost anything!
Review copyright 2026 by Dennis D. McDonald
