SILENT RIVER

Note: This review originally appeared as part of the 2022 Paris International Film Festival.

Some movies I have encountered over the years have been such an idiosyncratic experience on first viewing but have nonetheless compelled me to watch again and again.

Two examples that come to mind are Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 – A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968) – with its’ main protagonist a seemingly faceless monolith transcending time and human existence – and Lucio Fulci’s THE BEYOND (L’ALDILA) (1981), a movie that is by a stretch his horror masterpiece, although you might wonder what it is all about (even Fulci admitted at one point in his career that it was a plotless film).

Now, I have to add Chris Chan Lee’s SILENT RIVER, which for all intents and purposes will throw a few curveballs into the deeper reaches of your mind from the first half, which plays like David Lynch and Andrei Tarkovsky attempting to collaborate on a reboot of Wim Wenders’ PARIS, TEXAS (1984) – and a second half that emerges like a rural companion piece to EX MACHINA and WESTWORLD.

Chan Lee has stated that he was heavily influenced and inspired by watching David Lynch’s BLUE VELVET (1986), a strange but compelling small town mystery in which Kyle MacLachlan’s inquisitive protagonist uses the discovery of a rotting ear in a field to pursue Isabella Rossellini before finding hardship at the hands of Dennis Hopper’s Frank Booth.

The film follows Asian-American Elliot (West Liang), a troubled businessman who is trying to reconcile with his wife Julie and wanders out into the open road and desert to seek her. He stops off at a roadside hotel, where he encounters Greta (Amy Tsang), who reminds him of his wife, a fact he deals with her at dinner one night. However, in her car is a life-sized box which Elliot helps her into the room. Inquisitiveness amidst the mystery begins to crystallise in a world where the physical and metaphysical seemingly try to live together….

It is very difficult to categorise this film and your own acceptance of what transpires will depend on your willingness to change perspective mid-point like Chan Lee asserts to do, who has stated that the film is about existential crisis and what happens when our pre-occupations vanish.

Fans of Lynch’s extreme surrealist canvasses like MULHOLLAND DRIVE and LOST HIGHWAY will certainly want to check in like the characters at the hotel. For the more linear-minded viewers, grab a few pints afterwards as you discuss the intricacies of Chan Lee’s left-field but ultimately compelling cinematic effort.

Please keep an eye on local listings and social media for updates on brand-new screenings of SILENT RIVER.

Watch our PIFF 2022 interview and roundtable with the film-makers here:

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