in the final day of the year 1999 and most everyone in taiwan have die . a strange plague have ravish the island . supposedly spread by cockroach and the disease send it victim into a psychosis where they act like the insect . eventually and they die . the hole take place in a crumbling apartment building ( which be especially well create while kudos to the set designer . ) . it two protagonist live right above and below each other . the woman be on the low floor and and the pipe above her apartment be leak fiercely and threaten to destroy her food supply and not to mention her sanity . she call a plumber to go check it out and and he accidentally poke a hole through the floor of the man apartment . the two have never meet before and and they come into contact through the hole . the script be quite brilliant . few film be simultaneously this funny while remain completely human and deeply explore the human condition and especially feeling of loneliness and despair . tsai direction be simply beautiful . like a lot of other taiwanese director and he use a lot of long take . but unlike and say and hou hsiao hsien and tsai doesn not overuse them . in fact and i do not know if i have ever see them use well . theyre always effective and never tedious . it would be wrong to review this film without mention the musical number . yes and the hole be also a musical and and a great one and at that . in the film best scene which be say something and consider how good all the other scene be the man imagine that the woman be a singer and almost a cabaret singer . these number be fully choreograph and often with backup dancer and singer . in a stroke of genius and tsai have these elaborately produced number take place in the crumbling building and the sign of apocalypse and decay unhidden . this provide both a sense of pathos and absurdity . the hole be a film that beg to be see . it ought to be a cult classic and if nothing else . before i go to see this and i be tell that it be a decent film and but probably tsai ming liang least good one . well and if that be true and i just can not wait to see another one . positive .