The Falls

★ Numerous nominations: 11 Golden Horse Awards, with both leading actresses shortlisted

★ For the second consecutive year, director Chung Mong-Hong represents Taiwan in the best foreign-language film category at the Oscars (2022)

★ Selected in prestigious film festivals including the Venice Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, and Busan International Film Festival

★ The two nominated leading actresses jointly interpret drastic changes in life during the pandemic, expressing mutual love and hatred

★ Praised by critics as the not-to-be-missed movie in 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic over the past two years forces people to wear a mask, and many have to change their lifestyle. Some people even lose their beloved ones and friends, and the ways people expressed love change as well. Furthermore, social distancing measures dilute mutual trust and enhance a sense of isolation.

“The Falls” is the first film by Chong Mong-Hong (winner of the Golden Horse Award for best director) after “A Sun” (Golden Horse Award for best film). The story is about Xiao-Jing (played by Wang Jing) under home quarantine because one of her classmates is diagnosed with COVID-19. Consequently, her mother Pin-Wen (played by Jia Jing-Wen) is required by the company to rest at home. During the quarantine, tension arising between the mother and daughter becomes unavoidable. Xiao-Jing is indifferent to Pin-Wen and asserts that Pin-Wen is sick, adding to the latter’s anxiety about their relationship. Pin-Wen asks her ex-husband Qi-Wen (played by Lee Lee-Zen) to help solve the problem back home. She also expresses her remaining love for the remarried ex-husband but gets rejected. If the pandemic is not the ultimate reason for the enhanced psychological distance between people, what would the reason be?

Can the pandemic-induced quasi-mental illnesses be cured with drugs or through changes in one’s heart? Quarantined for the pandemic, the mother and the daughter both take an unexpected turn and encounter people who bring collision into their lives. How to detangle the knots entwined in their lives and hearts for so long?