The Falls (2021)

Calm After The Storm

The entire movie is focused on Xiao Jing and her struggles as a daughter of a parent that had a mental breakdown. Xiao Jing's mother has been living a stressful life at work and living in some delusion that her husband is coming home (they're divorced) and she continues to be in denial about this fact. The tipping point was when Xiao Jing was sent home from school when a classmate was found positive of covid. Xiao Jing never cared for her overbearing mother who was on the brink of losing control of everything in her life-- bills left unpaid, staring blankly at the wall at work and the only "normalcy" for her was her daughter. When Pin-Wen almost burned their house down, and she was taken to the hospital, Xiao Jing decided to take care of her mother.

The storyline is a bit forlorn and the movie's pace is slow. But the director's intent is felt throughout the hour and a half. When Xiao Jing's mother's mental health started to improve and when her mother was finally ready to face the realities of life, she decided to find work (she was let go from the previous job) at a supermarket where she met Chen. Despite all the lies that the mother said about her previous work experience (she did not disclose the fact that she worked in a huge company and was let go), she also claimed that her husband died (he was very much alive but now lives with his new wife and son). While Xiao Jing's mother was busy acclimatizing herself at work and adjusting to working with others, Xiao Jing managed to convince her mother to finally sell their huge house to pay for the loans and the other debts that have piled up during her breakdown, and hospitalization. Medicated and adjusting to her work at the supermarket, Pin-Wen finally agreed to let go of the house and all her hopes of her husband to come back to her.

The storyline brings light to the struggles of women in transition and the difficulty of raising children on their own as well as their struggles with mental challenges and fighting off delusions and illusions. The title, The Falls is a metaphor. Pin-Wen when in her psychotic moments hears water rushing through like a waterfall. She tries to run away from the sound and the rising of water but cannot do so in her head... In the last 15 minutes to the end of the movie, Xiao Jing along with her friends had an accident on a school-related trip when water from the dam was released which caused the water to rise and for Xiao Jing to be swept away along with her friends. Pin-Wen receives a call about the accident and was advised to monitor the progress of the rescue operation via television. With her worried eyes, she watch as students were revived and taken by ambulances until the camera finds Xiao Jing assisted by one of the rescuers and the movie ends.

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The story highlights the realization that mental issues are real and they can happen to anyone. With proper support from family members and medication, anyone with mental issues can live a normal life.

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Bland

After watching A Sun, I had high hopes for this Taiwanese family drama. Unfortunately, this movie fell short of my expectations. At more than 2 hours long, it is long and the pacing is extremely slow. As mentioned in my headline, a one word summary of this movie would be: bland. Many dramatic events unfolded in this movie - worsening Covid situation, a mother's descent into insanity, realising you have a secret half brother etc yet it feels almost like nothing happened. The main character Xiao Jing faces these tragic events with a stoicism not usually seen in teenagers, making this film hard to believe. How many 17/18 year olds are able to stomach watching their mother succumb into the throes of psychosis without so much as an outburst or a cry for help? Not me definitely. It also doesn't help that Xiao Jing is able to so quickly flip the switch from rebellious teenager with a tenuous relationship with her mother to dutiful daughter, without so much as a single complaint. The conversations between mother and daughter feel so stilted and scripted they might as well have been reading off a teleprompter. Though strangely I felt that the only time where the dialogue was believable was during the arguments Xiao Jing and her mother had at the start. This is sad because Gingle Wang and Alyssa Chia have the acting chops to pull it off but even the best of acting cannot save the dialogue.

This movie would have been more bearable had it been cut to 1.5 hours or shorter. At the end, I'm still not sure what this film is trying to convey. How strong a mother-daughter bond can be? Resilient teenagers? Importance of mental health during pandemic times? Or would it be not to play in rivers that are prone to flooding? Who knows? Your guess is as good as mine.

P.S: I would be grateful if anyone can tell me what the sound of waterfalls is meant to symbolize,

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