The Hole Plays New York in a Theater for the First Time

By The Backlot

@backlotfriends

A woman sits in a cramped tiled bathroom, phone to her ear and a plastic basin lifted overhead, in a scene from Tsai Ming-liang's The Hole

Tsai Ming-liang's The Hole has never played New York in a theater. That changes July 10, when Big World Pictures opens it on new 35mm prints.

It is set in Taipei during the final days of the millennium. A plague is draining the island. Two residents of a crumbling apartment block refuse to leave. A plumber abandons an unfinished job and leaves a hole between their floors. Through it, they begin to exist together.

The film cuts between plague realism and Grace Chang musical numbers. That sounds impossible. Tsai makes it feel true.

For anyone who stayed somewhere they should have left. Or anyone who has been alone but not quite alone.

Before you go: Millennium Mambo. 2001, Hou Hsiao-hsien. Also Taipei, also millennium's edge, also a film that knows what it feels like to wait.

Quick Facts

The Hole Plays New York in a Theater for the First Time

DirectorTsai Ming-liang

CastYang Kuei-mei, Lee Kang-sheng, Miao Tian, Hui-Chin Lin, Lin Kun-huei, Tong Hsiang-Chu

GenreComedy, Drama

Release2026-07-10

Runtime95 min

RatedNR

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Tsai Ming-liang's The Hole has never played New York in a theater. That changes July 10, when Big World Pictures opens it on new 35mm prints. #Backlot

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The Hole opens July 10 in NYC on new 35mm prints. Tsai Ming-liang's 1998 Taipei plague film plays New York for the first time via Big World Pictures.

Tsai Ming-liang's The Hole has never played New York in a theater. That changes July 10, when Big World Pictures opens it on new 35mm prints.

The film cuts between plague realism and Grace Chang musical numbers. That sounds impossible. Tsai makes it feel true.

For anyone who stayed somewhere they should have left. Or anyone who has been alone but not quite alone.

Before you go: Millennium Mambo. 2001, Hou Hsiao-hsien. Also Taipei, also millennium's edge, also a film that knows what it feels like to wait.