The River

1997 ‘河流’ Directed by Tsai Ming-liang

A young man develops severe neck pain after swimming in a polluted river; his dysfunctional parents are unable to provide any relief for him or themselves.

Miao Tien Lee Kang-Sheng Ann Hui Lu Yi-Ching Chen Shiang-Chyi Yang Kuei-Mei Chen Chao-jung

Alternative Titles

He Liu, 하류, O Rio, Το ποτάμι, El río, Kawa, Der Fluß, A folyó, Rzeka, 河

drama romance

115 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by Tony (tectactoe) ★★★★★ 18

[91]
After being highly receptive of every Tsai film I’ve seen thus far, I figured it was about time I tried to dive more in-depth about the essence of his very style, and why I find his particular brand of stoicism fundamentally more alluring and captivating than many others’. THE RIVER completely knocked my socks off, and not only does it contain some of the most painfully lingering sequences in Tsai’s canon (and I say that as a good thing), it also accentuates and encompasses many of the recurring aspects of his films that I find immensely compelling. This will surely be longer than I intend, and many of these items can be applied to his entire body of work,…
Review by claire ❤️ diane 2

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

just a few thoughts for now: i love the continuity between this and Rebels of the Neon God -- the same family? or its own doppelganger in the same house. moments of beauty: the opening motorcycle shot; and, i am comforted by the brief humming ozu-style pauses as characters leave or enter shots. my favorite is in the hotel at the end. a charming remoteness to it. but more, as the characters flow around and through, there is the weight of unmoving edifice.
the final scene is a kind of nightmare vision: hsiao-kang wanders through the dark, amidst a sea of shadow people, slowly, like one of the dead. like he is wandering through hell.
continues tsai's emphasis on reflections…
Review by Shea Gallagher ★★★½

Plunges you into a pit of despair - that the most tender moments are also the most horrifying is testament to the kind of ordeal Tsai puts us through, that I didn't experience immediate emotional short-circuitry during this at multiple points is most likely owed to the gradual all-encompassing numbness to which I succumbed. I had to; it was the only way. The pain is almost cosmic, a single moment that begins to ripple and echo and compliment your sad, fucked up little existence. A sore neck that feels like death itself.
Review by anya ★★★★★

does what most films can’t seem to do, in this case, presenting the pain as not some vindictive curse and rather allowing every frame to speak for how tragic that condition is in addition to the life have to live. we’re hiding from our own family, people we have to respond to and in the best of cases are here to help us, but we’re loosing the words and everything is trapped inside of our bodies. tsai makes incredible movies because he knows how to make very real images that are showing a lot of us ourselves in some different light. these people are taking in our hell for a brief moment and even though it enforces how real it is to us, it becomes sympathetic and comforting to know we all share a hell sometimes.
Review by Logan Kenny ★★★★★ 3

really captures the endless emotional and physical anguish of going to doctors, physicians, alternative therapists, absolutely anyone you can think of to try and alleviate your pain and getting nothing that helps. the toll of forcing your hopes up only for them to be destroyed over and over again is even worse than what brought you to them sometimes. remember having to go to specialists, hospitals all over the country for my migraines, on a dozen different medications since I was 11 and getting nothing that worked, nothing that made the pain easier to bear. the dread I felt at night, knowing that I’d have to force myself through the blinding pain in my eyes and walk towards a doctor…
Review by Sébastien 1

A film for horny people with back problems
Review by reibureibu ★★★★ 4

Illness without clear cause is a terrifying thing. Maybe you feel sick because of something you ate (but you didn't eat anything differently recently). Maybe you have a migraine because of spending all day on the computer (but this is you everyday). Maybe you start sniffling because of allergy season (but it's winter). And maybe you develop a mysterious and incurable neck pain because you decided to float face-down in Taipei's Tamsui River for a few seconds at the behest of a film director (but this literally makes no sense).
So what do you do? In general... nothing, really. Preventative medicine inherently can't be a response, and responsive medicine generally arrives too late; most illnesses go away on their own,…
Review by amanda :( 2

noticed i’ve been unknowingly watching tsai ming liang’s films at sort of pivotal times in my life. i’m either entering a depressive episode or leaving one.
in this case leaving one; always watching in a state of willful surrender. i can’t help but feel fully immersed in these trapped bodies that he presents, drained from their worlds.
Review by Sally Jane Black

If you identified directors with classical (western) elements, Tsai Ming-Liang would obviously be "water." It's not simply that most of his films are drenched in rain, nor that t his one starts with someone floating face down in a river. It's about the murky depths, the quiet stillness, and the strange, occasional emotional torrents, and many other watery metaphors, that flow (heh) through his films.
Like many of his films, this one explores disconnection in modern life. A young man's neck begins to hurt, and his family, though they try to help, never really comes together. Both parents are having affairs, and the young man shows no sign of seeking fidelity or monogamy in his life. While he seeks answers in medicine, folklore, and spirituality, his pain remains and the most significant connection he makes with his family comes in a rather disturbing moment in a shadowy room, quite by accident.
Review by Violet ★★★★½

Character: *Rides a motorcycle*
Me: Ah yes another amazing film from Tsai Ming-liang
Review by Enfant du Siècle ★★★½

Members of a Taiwanese family face physical and emotional difficulties in Taipei during the late 1990s. Hsiao-Kang and his parents live together but they are practically strangers to each other, there is an absolute disconnection between them, they are dysfunctional beings whose lives are adrift. In He Liu, Tsai Ming-liang reaffirms that isolation, loneliness and incommunication are the major issues of modern life and casual sex is considered a vehicle for escape from the overwhelming daily life; a last attempt to fill the existential void in the desperate search for an elusive intimacy and a new meaning to life. A complex film, with an extremely slow pace and the few dialogues that distinguish the work of the Taiwanese filmmaker, but with powerful and lyrical gaze that reveals with a particular sensitivity the complexity of the human condition and its yearning for love.
Review by Hibiscus ★★★★ 5

(This will be more of a life update/rant, than an actual review)
I remember being sceptical towards people saying things like "2020 is the worst year ever" and "the world is horrible now". I think a lot about the idea of a "collective unconscious", and I always try to stay happy and positive.
But as the year progressed, it seems like I became more and more cynical and anxious, because of some personal setbacks and accidents. It became harder and harder for me to disagree with what everyone around me was saying.
I lost my job in May.
I broke my arm(or more specifically; shattered my elbow, which is now replaced with a prosthetic piece)after which I had to endure…

Recent reviews

Review by . . ★★★★

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

Slowly making my way through his filmography I am going back to some of the big names that I had missed earlier on. The blu-ray prints help a lot. It was pretty great getting to see Ann Hui, (Hong Kong New Wave director extraordinaire), playing the director in the opening scene.
It was interesting to see how the leaky roof will escalate into The Hole the following year. I loved the family dynamic in this one.
I am a little confused how the father could have possibly not known that was his son in the penultimate scene.
I don't pretend to get all the symbolism but I still love the feeling of TML's films. I wish he had stuck with…
Review by Tasneem Abdallah 2

ابو محمد المواسرجي ٠٧٨٨١٩١٨٨٤
Review by Eli Heaton

Almost watched this with my dad. Can’t rate TML, which is exactly what he’d want.
Review by basel Shukri ★★★★★

قدرتي على الاندماج بافلام تساي مينج خيالية جدا .. صرت احس حالي فرد من افراد عائلة لي كانج ، والرطوبة خنقتني
Review by Aheem

Nihilistic
Review by NoahGittell ★★★★½

We drift through our days, hoping to happen upon some meaning or happiness or connection, or maybe just a bit of pleasure. The longer we go, the lonelier we get. The sicker we become. And still the water rises.
Review by reservoir dog ★★★★

The River: Current, Depth, and Dirt.
There's some sort of comfort in this film similar to what floating on water feels like. It flows so gently. However, there comes a point when we realize its superficiality is depth in disguise. The river that calms you can drown you. That's when the comfort wears off.
All rivers go to the same ocean as all families are composed of its members, and with them carry their own current, depth, and dirt. How we sometimes want to hug a body of water but only to realize it's the water that embraces us... Drowns us. Neglects us.
A dysfunctional family is not a river we can float on.
Review by leftnotrace

Is nobody happy in Taiwan?
Review by Zefanya Simanjuntak ★★★★

A Meditative film contemplating about nature and force.
"Relax
Review by Gavin Pringle ★★★

My god that hallway scene though. Beauty
Review by maxanista15 ★★★★½

Stop it, Tsai
(Never stop)
Review by Trixy Davies ★★★★

Fractured relationships and those ever-present feelings of isolation, more prominent upon an awareness of a mysterious neck pain, when those around you fail to help you or determine a cause. Sexual gratification as the only solace, but at what cost?