Film

The Hole

Other titles called The Hole: the 2001 film, the 2009 film.

Tsai Ming-liang's apocalyptic fable about two strangers separated by a hole in the floor during Taiwan's final days. As plague empties the world and rain never stops, they communicate through the gap with mounting intimacy and need. Glacially paced, visually ravishing, and deeply strange—for viewers who find beauty in stillness and isolation.

TMDb rating3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you respond to films where long silences and small domestic gestures carry more feeling than any plot, and where a rainy apartment can feel like the whole world.

Skip it if you want momentum or a clear story engine, since this moves at a deliberate crawl, leans on quiet stretches, and often lets scenes simply sit without explaining themselves.

What it asks of you: It runs about ninety-five minutes but feels unhurried, with long held shots, sparse dialogue, and a patience that rewards viewers who let the mood settle rather than waiting for things to happen.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Mulholland Drive2001

Surreal LA nightmare that scrambles identity and desire into something hypnotic. Like *The Hole*, it trusts you to sit with confusion and discomfort until meaning crystallizes—or doesn't.

But Three hours, nonlinear, deliberately opaque. If you need plot clarity or pace, this will frustrate you.

Mulholland Drive poster

Come and See1985

Elem Klimov's merciless vision of war as apocalypse. Both films trap characters in worlds drained of hope while rain, decay, and separation become the real story.

But Genuinely harrowing. Not a film that comforts or affirms. Some scenes stay with you in ways that hurt.

Come and See poster

Under the Skin2014

Slow-burn sci-fi about alien presence and human vulnerability. Like *The Hole*, it mines strangeness from isolation and physical proximity, with minimal dialogue and maximum dread.

But Alien landscape cinematography is gorgeous but glacial. The narrative is minimal; visual and sonic mood matter more than story.

Under the Skin poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Hole

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Tokyo Story1953

Both trust stillness over incident. Both find profundity in spaces between people rather than in action or dialogue. Both believe cinema should watch, not explain.

Ozu's quiet portrait of family and time passing. No plague, no science fiction—but the same patient observation of connection, silence, and the space between people. Proof that *The Hole*'s aesthetic is timeless.

But Black and white, shot in static frames with no dramatic crescendo. Pure observation of ordinary life will bore anyone seeking conventional narrative.

Tokyo Story poster
More like this (8)

Yi Yi2000

Edward Yang's portrait of contemporary Taipei life—observant, digressive, full of small connections. A companion to Tsai's vision of the city, warmer but equally attentive to surfaces and secrets.

But Nearly three hours tracking overlapping family stories with no conventional climax. Requires patience and acceptance of loose threads.

Yi Yi poster

Stalker1979

Andrei Tarkovsky's metaphysical journey into a mysterious zone mirrors *The Hole*'s exploration of desire and the unknowable. Hypnotic, philosophical, constructed from time and silence.

But Extremely long, extremely slow. Shot in muted colors with minimal action. Tests even patient viewers' endurance.

Stalker poster

Happy Together1997

Wong Kar-wai's portrait of two men in Buenos Aires, confined by architecture and obsession. Visual extravagance containing emotional claustrophobia—desire and decay in intimate spaces.

But Deliberately artificial color grading and rapid cutting can feel stylish to the point of distraction. Some find it self-conscious.

Happy Together poster

The Turin Horse2011

Béla Tarr's apocalyptic duet between master and servant repeating rituals as the world ends. Rain, decay, and two people caught together—Tarr's version of *The Hole*'s vision.

But Black and white, repetitive, bleak. No redemption offered. Many viewers find it punishing rather than rewarding.

The Turin Horse poster

Synecdoche, New York2008

Charlie Kaufman's labyrinth of identity and grief. Like *The Hole*, it finds strangeness in ordinary relationships and locations, building worlds within worlds.

But Deliberately confusing and self-referential. Easy to feel lost; some see profundity, others see pretension.

Synecdoche, New York poster

In the Mood for Love2000

Wong Kar-wai's adjacent film about longing in confined Hong Kong apartment spaces. Visual poetry of proximity and distance—another meditation on desire caught in architecture.

But More beautiful than dramatic. Plot is thin; atmosphere and cinematography are everything. Some find it decorative.

In the Mood for Love poster

A Ghost Story2017

Both use science fiction as a frame for exploring intimacy and mortality. Both compress vast ideas—plague, time, separation—into confined spaces and minimal dialogue.

David Lowery's intimate science-fiction film about time, presence, and loss. A man watches his house and life from beyond, contemplating centuries while rain falls. Minimal but devastating—*The Hole* for a different century.

But Deliberately paced, visually austere, emotionally heavy. Its central metaphor (a ghost under a sheet) will strike some as slight or precious.

A Ghost Story poster

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles1976

Both are films about isolation and routine in confined spaces. Both refuse dramatic convention and instead build meaning through duration, repetition, and visual precision. Both demand the viewer become the film's collaborator.

Chantal Akerman's three-hour observation of a woman's domestic routine. It seems plotless until you realize the plot is time itself, rhythm, the space between actions. Shares *The Hole*'s faith that attention to small things reveals everything.

But Extended real-time sequences of cooking, cleaning, sex work. No music, minimal cutting. Many find it boring; supporters call it revolutionary. Legitimately difficult to sit through.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles poster

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Taipei Story