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The River

The River a dysfunctional family: the son is inflicted with a bizarre, incurable neck pain after working as an extra for a Hong Kong filmmaker (Ann Hui); his mother, an elevator operator, is having a dispassionate affair; and the father prowls bath houses for anonymous sex with men. Their lives are shown with equal doses of austere bleakness and absurd humour, building up to a shocking denouement that is as uncomfortable as it is shocking.