(aka'The River or 'He liu')
Taiwan 1997
"I have always wanted to probe deeper
into the roots of humanity. While shooting The River, I kept reminding myself to
probe into the deeper, the darker half of ourselves. We don’t always live
happily ever after. Materialism boosts human greed to an unglorious height. We
have everything we ever wanted, yet there is something lurking in the dark to
keep us from being really happy.”
-- Tsai Ming-Liang
Following
similar themes in his previous films 'Vive L'Amour' and 'Rebels of the
Neon God' with isolated relationships, East Malaysian born Ming-liang Tsai's
The River 's character interaction is distant, impersonal and
segregated. The prevailing family unit almost behaves unilaterally with the
limited communication skills. Three individuals going their separate ways,
performing most of life's routine daily rituals entirely by themselves which is
almost an exact parallel to
Vive L'Amour. Heavy moods with physical
ailment masking as emotional ones and sexual deviance (as seen in his future
offering 'What Time is it There?') is shown as a symptomatic vent for invisible
communication. A worthwhile effort and evenly-paced, but even at this point we
can already see the start of the directors creative process and themes forming
repetitious circles.
WellSpring Media Region 1 DVD
| DVD Box Cover |
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| Distribution | Wellspring Media Region 1 - NTSC | |
| Runtime | 1:53:00 | |
| Video | 1.85:1.00
Letterboxed WideScreen / non- anamorphic Average Bitrate: 4.16 mb/s NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s |
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| Bitrate: Alliance Atlantis |
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| Audio | Mandarin Chinese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo) | |
| Subtitles | English, None | |
| Features |
Release Information: Studio: Wellspring Media, Inc. Theatrical Release Date: January 1, 1997 Aspect Ratio(s):
Edition Details:
• Filmographies
DVD Release Date: February 4, 2003 |
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| Comments: |
The
transfer is a little disappointing. Weaker than the previous WellSpring DVD Tsai film, "What
Time is it There". This print shows a lot of hazy, dull colors, is
NOT anamorphic but is miles ahead of the extremely dark VHS copy that I
have. This DVD has a fairly clean, if not sharp picture. There is no
commentary, but some good web links, 4 Trailers (see above) and filmographies.
Good job by Wellspring to bring this to DVD, but as I am such a fan of the
director I was hoping for more, but I suppose it is too eclectic to spend
money on, from a 'profit' standpoint.
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| Distribution | Wellspring Media Region 1 - NTSC | |
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Gary Tooze 1775 Rowntree Court Mississauga, Ontario, L4W 4V3 CANADA |
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Thank You!
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