Hengs' lead off covers a lot, and i understand the caveats.

I'm a bit worried about hyperbole at this early stage and for a film that might seem to have similarities with Takashi Miike's much siller and probably more crowd-pleasing outrages- but this may be one of the few utterly brilliant films of the modern era (by which i suppose i mean the current generation). And i'm a bit of an old-fashioned middle-aged classicist! I'll be interested to see what the critic Tony Rayns makes of it, cos he sometimes champions provocative films that strike me as dumb + shallow or pretentious, not at all the socially perceptive + piercing masterpieces he makes out (e.g Miike's Visitor Q he considers "devastating" social critique and he also raves over Jang Soon-Woo tedious Lies). 

I like the review, Trev. Interesting point about water, which in the River- the first Tsai film i saw- seemed to me vaguely menacing + constricting, like a circling anaconda; no doubt a very personal Freudian reaction . 

And now it seems my imaginary anaconda raises its head into.. a giant dancing penis.

Demy,Almodovar, Fellini meet Tati, Godard, Antonioni, Akerman, Miike, Oshima (Ai No Corrida's egg now a watermelon)..

Tsai takes a range of well-worn styles, themes (yes, impersonal loveless sex, social alienation, angst, the failings of this materialist age and its futile obsessions) references (including to his own work) and genres, opens them out into a unique original mix. It's elegant, witty, beautiful, vibrant, joyful, cold, languid, painful and sensational

I may be reading too much into the social meanings- what of the attitudes to gender?- there's still a lot to sink in. Anyway, i'm really taken with his visual style. I find his use of space, silence + sound, as well as his sense of time, very interesting, and he has an eye for arresting, deceptively clever compositions that remain in the mind, despite quite unpromising or mundane settings.