Dong (1998)
Genre: Drama
Duration: 95 minuten
Alternative titles: The Hole / 洞
Country:
Taiwan / France
Directed by: Ming-liang Tsai
Starst: Yang Kuei-Mei, Kang-sheng Lee and Miao Tian
IMDb score:
7,4 (4.489)
Releasedate: 24 March 1999
This movie is not available on US streaming services.
Dong plot
"A search for intimacy in a world of disaster."
The new millennium is approaching. It rains for days on end and there is an unknown virus. Despite the advice to evacuate, a number of residents of an apartment building remain in their apartment. Rather than fix a leak, a plumber leaves a gaping hole in the floor of young Hsiao Kang. Kang peeks through this hole at his downstairs neighbor. She dreams of her upstairs neighbor Kang and glamorous musical numbers.
Actors and actresses
The Woman Downstairs
The Man Upstairs
The Customer at Market
Neighbor
The Kid
The Plumber
(voice)
(voice)
(voice)
(voice)
Reviews & comments
maxcomthrilla
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- 15568 messages
- 2761 votes
A worthy prequel to The Wayward Cloud!
Tsai has a few serious mistakes to his name, fortunately he shows once again what he should be doing: creating a separate world, as he would later do in The Wayward Cloud, a feast of drought and watermelons combined with the theme of loneliness and emptiness.
In Dong it rains incessantly and there is a virus floating around, which causes the two main characters to spend their days in an almost isolated environment and a dilapidated house. The characters live in such a miserable world that you wish they could hug each other at the end of the film.
Tsai is a great fan of the 60s, whether it concerns music or the nouvelle vague movement. The musical intermezzos are all fantastic (I couldn't recover after that 1st musical intermezzo: Oh Calypso!) and, together with the dry humor, keep the pace and attention of this film. 4*
Translated from Dutch · View original
Fisico (moderator films)
-
- 9218 messages
- 5064 votes
Difficult to understand film, less accessible to the general public and leaning more on the artistic aspect than the technical aspect of the story. Many long shots where you can do little more than observe. Observing uninviting bare gray house walls with moisture and dirt. The constant tone of heavy rain showers in the background, (left behind) residents who are assigned to themselves and with each other because of an outbreak of a virus (which is not elaborated as a plot, but plays in the background), and so on.
It all sounds rather depressing and it is, if it weren't for the occasional cheerful, jolly disco and dance numbers that emerge to give the whole thing some extra oxygen and verve. As if, amid all the desolation, there is still that spark of hope and joy to be found in human life.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Movsin
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- 7977 messages
- 8255 votes
Director Ming-Liang Tsai seems to want to present a very bleak picture of the upcoming 21st century. The sound of the rain alone, which falls from the sky during the entire film and destroys quite a bit of indoors, has a disturbing effect on the film.
A beautiful, expressive film by the way, which highlights many themes such as the mandatory government guidelines (shutting off water, leaving the region, etc.), economic growth that widens the rich/poor gap, accompanied by a consumer society ( the piles of cleaning cloths), the people who no longer know each other due to their inability to communicate,...
And yet there is also some more pleasant variety, such as the variety songs in honor of Grace Chang, a singer from a bygone era (Was it so much better in the past?) and certainly the final scene where the outstretched arm shows how people in emergency situations can still help is available.
All I saw from this filmmaker was "What time is it there?". A great film, but this Dong makes an even greater impression. Original in concept, solid camera work and structure and many themes to ponder.
Fascinating from beginning to end, despite the often long action in real time, which actually made the result even more precise and always appeals to me;
Translated from Dutch · View original
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