Plot
Hsiao-Kang (Lee Kang-sheng), a young man in his 20s, is going up an escalator in Taipei when he meets an old girlfriend of his (Chen Shiang-chyi). She convinces him to accompany her to a film shoot that she is working on. While eating lunch, Hsiao-Kang is spotted by the film's director (Ann Hui). The scene that they are currently shooting needs an actor, so Hsiao-Kang agrees to step in. He lies face down in the dirty Tamsui River for a few seconds, pretending to be a dead body.
After the scene is completed, he and his friend get a room in a hotel so Hsiao-Kang can take a shower. The two then have sexual intercourse. Hsiao-Kang drives home on his motorcycle and begins to feel some soreness in his neck. He eventually falls off the bike, and a man, later shown to be his father (Miao Tien), tries to help him up, but Hsiao-Kang ignores him and drives the rest of the way back.
By that night, his neck pain is even worse. He goes to his mother (Lu Yi-ching), and she rubs some lotion on him. However, the pain does not go away. The family tries different methods of healing, including acupuncture, but nothing works, and Hsiao-Kang begins to wish he were dead. Meanwhile, it is apparent that the family is fractured, with communication problems. Hsiao-Kang's father regularly visits a bathhouse and has sexual encounters with other men. The mother is having an affair with a pornographer.
Finally, Hsiao-Kang and his father travel to see a provincial healer. The healer is not able to foresee anything on their first visit, so they rent a hotel room. That night, they both go to the same bathhouse, separately. Hsiao-Kang eventually walks into his dad's room in the dark, and the two give each other handjobs.
When Hsiao-Kang's father turns the light on and sees his son, he slaps him, and Hsiao-Kang runs out. They meet back at the hotel room. The next morning, the father receives a phone call from the healer, who says that he cannot help them. The father then wakes Hsiao-Kang up and says that they're leaving. Hsiao-Kang walks out onto the hotel room balcony, while clutching his neck and grimacing in pain.
Read more about this topic: The River (1997 Film)
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“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
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