A City of Sadness (悲情城市 Beiqing chengshi 1989)

Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien/Hou Xiaoxian

Screenplay: Chu Tien-Wen/Zhu Tianwen, Wu Nien-Jen/Wu Nianzhen

Cinematographer: Chen Hua-yen

Producer: Chiu Fu-sheng

Music: Tachikawa Naoki, Zhang Hongyi.

Cast: Tony Chiu-Wai Leung (Lin Wen-Ching), Li Tianlu (Lin Ah-Lu), Chen Songyong (Lin Wen-Hsung) Gao Jie (Lin Wen-Liang), Wu Yifang (Wu Hinoe), Xin Shufen (Wu Hinomi)

Studio: 3-H Films. An Era International Presentation. 1989

Description: color, about 160 mins. Mandarin, Hokkien, Shanghaiese, Cantonese, and Japanese dialogue. Winner of the Golden Lion for the best film at the Venice International Film Festival in 1989.

Notes on the title:

"This island is pitiful. First the Japanese, then the Chinese. Everyone exploits us and no one cares." - Wen-heung (the oldest son of the Lin's family in the film)

"I didn't make A City of Sadness because I purposely wanted to open up old wounds'...but because I know that we have to face ourselves and our history if we are ever to understand who we are and where we're going." - Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the director of the film

Click here to read more background information about the historical situation of Taiwan, the February 28 Incident, and Taiwan film industry: "CONTEXTS: Behind City of Sadness."

Synopsis:

A City of Sadness chronicles the lives of the Lin family during the turbulent four years between the Japanese withdrawal from Taiwan (after 51 years of occupation) in 1945, to the secession of Taiwan from mainland China in 1949. The eldest brother, Wen-Heung (Chen Sown-yung), a robust man with crude manners, returns from the war to open a family restaurant called 'Little Shanghai' in celebration of Taiwan's reunification with mainland China. The second brother, Wen-Leung (Jack Gao), became insane during his tour of duty, and is being treated at the local hospital. After Wen-Leung's recuperation, the lack of prospects in Taiwan and lure of easy money from the Shanghai visitors draw him into the world of organized crime. A third brother, Wen-Sun, sent into combat in the Philippines, is missing in action. The fourth brother, a pensive, shy young man named Wen-Ching (Tony Leung), spared from conscription because of deafness, runs a photography studio. In these uncertain times, even the schools are not immune from the chaos. The school headmaster, Ogawa (Nagatani Sentaro), a man of Japanese heritage, is ordered to repatriate to Japan with his daughter, Shizuko (Nakamura Ikuyo). Wen-Ching's friend Hinoe (Wu Yifang), a teacher and intellectual, is increasingly seen as an insurrectionist threat by the corrupt mainland officials, and is forced to hide out in the mountains in order to spare his family from political harassment. Meanwhile, Hinoe's sister, Hinomi (Xin Shufen), a nurse, becomes a constant witness to the chaos, as her responsibilities shift from tending to war casualties, to gang-related violence, to military aggression. Hinomi is in love with the gentle Wen-Ching, but the country's instability continues to threaten their happiness. One day, in what has come to be known as the 2/28 Incident, mainland officials violently crack down on the Taiwanese rebels, and thousands of people are imprisoned or killed in the uprising. Wen-Ching is among those detained by the authorities. In a subtly disturbing scene, Wen-Ching nervously paces the crowded prison cell as he awaits his uncertain fate, unable to hear the distant sound of gunfire from the swift execution of convicted dissidents...[Source: Acquarello's Strickly Film School.]

About the director:

Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1947-): Of the ten films that Hou Hsiao-Hsien has directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film and/or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed as "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema."

Hou's birthplace, a county in Kuangtung Province, had been well known as an intellectual center in China. In 1948 his family moved to Taiwan and, like all children raised there, he went through an extremely demanding educational system. In 1969 he studied film at the National Taiwan Arts Academy. After graduation in 1972, he worked briefly as a salesman. Later he began his film career as a scriptwriter and assistant director.

Hou's cinema is often concerned with his experiences of growing up in rural Taiwan in the 1950s and 60s. The 50s marked a time in which refugee families from the mainland were painfully struggling for survival, while the 60s saw the beginning of the most significant social change in modern Taiwan. The economic boom of that period meant the beginning of Westernization and urbanization. The normal frustrations of growing up were aggravated by these complicated changes, and Hou's films are intimate expressions of those experiences.

His emotionally charged work is replete with highly nostalgic images and beautiful compositions; their power lies in his total identification with the past and the fate of families who suffered through difficult times. His stories, often written in collaboration with scriptwriters T'ien-wen Chu and Nien-Jen Wu, depict the complex intertwining of the different strands that shape the lives of individuals. In a poetic yet relaxed style, they reflect a deep sympathy and a profound humanism.

(This mini biography for Hou Hsiao-Hsien is provided by provided by International Movie Database (IMDB). For more information, visit IMDB at http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0396284/.).

Click here for a longer biography and more information of Hou Hsiao-Hsien in New York Times.

Hou's filmography: Café Lumière (2003), Millennium Mambo (2001), Flowers of Shanghai (1998), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), Good Men, Good Women (1995), The Puppetmaster (1993), City of Sadness (1989), Daughter of the Nile (1987), Dust in the Wind (1986), The Time to Live and the Time to Die (1985), A Summer at Grandpa's (1984), The Sandwich Man (1983), The Boys From Fengkuei (1983), The Green, Green Grass of Home (1983), Cheerful Wind (1981), Cute Girl (1980).

About the stars:

Tony Leung Chiu-Wai/Liang Chaowei (1962-), born in Hong Kong and grew up in a single-parent family. After passing the training courses at the TVB in 1982, he began his screen career by hosting a children's program at the TVB, then established his stardom by comic style performance in several popular television series. After he became famous, he appreared in many popular films, most notably in John Woo's Bullet in the Head (1990) and Hard-Boiled (1992). His versatile performing talents were better demonstrated in a series of aeteur films made by Stanley Kwan, Hou Hsiou-Hsien, Wong Kar-Wai, Tran An Hung, and Zhang Yimou in films like Love Unto Waste (Stanley Kwan, 1986), A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiou-Hsien, 1989), Chungking Express (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994), Ashes of Time (Wong Kar-Wai, 1994), Happy Together (Wong Kar-Wai, 1997), Cyclo (Tran An Hung, 1995), In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar-Wai, 2000), and Hero (Zhang Yimou, 2002), etc. He had won many awards, including the prestigious Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2000 for his performance in Wong's In the Mood for Love. Tony Leung is arguably the most sought film actor in East Asia. In addition to being an outstanding acctor, Leung is also a singer.

Questions to ponder:

These are a few questions suggested for you to think about while reading the assigned articles and watching the film. Please jot down ideas and notes on details or scenes you think are relevant for class discussion.

1. The film is set to the fateful four years in Taiwan history, from the end of Japanese 50-year colonization of Taiwan in 1945, to the ascent of Communist power on the Mainland and the establishment of the Guomindang government-in-exile in Taipei by Chiang Kai-Shek in 1949. How does Hou Hsiao-Hsien represent aspects of the turbulent historical transformation through the fortunes of one single family? How is the key event--the February 28 Incident--represented in the film? Is it directly mentioned? Does the film sound didactic to you? Why or why not? Can you explain it in terms of film languages?

2. How does the film represent the problematic identity of Taiwan in its relation to Japan, Mainland China (both the Nationalist and Communist influences)?

3. Various languages and dialects are spoken in the film: Hokkien, Mandarin, Shanghaiese, Cantonese, and Japanese. How do you understand this linguistic diversity in relation to the Taiwanese identity at that historical moment?

4. How do you read the deaf-muteness of Wen-Ching in the film? Is there any symbolic significance in his deaf-muteness? What's his role in the film narrative? What is problematic about verbal communication?

5. Where is Hinomi's position in the film? Read Abe Mark Nornes and Yeh Yueh-yu's anaysis, and think about how her voiceover works in the film's narrative in terms of gendered time and space.

5. Hou Hsiao-Hsien is known for his affection for long take and long shot. In this film, the camera records lots of trivial routines in everyday life, such as eating, taking care of baby, cleaning, etc. Is this mundane documentation relevant to your understanding of the theme of the film? What kind of visual effects do they create? Give a closer anaylsis of the visual style of this film (say, is there any close-up or fast-cutting in the film?)

Relevant readings:

Reynaud, Bérénice. A City of Sadness (a monographic study of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's 1989 film in BFI's Modern Classic Series). London: BFI, 2002.

Chi, Robert. "Getting It on Film: Representing and Understanding History in A City of Sadness." Tamkang Review 29, 4 (Summer 1999): 47-84.

Web Sources:

Abe Mark Nornes and Yeh Yueh-yu. "Narrating National Sadness: Cinematic Mapping and Hypertextual Dispersion." (a UC Berkerley-based hypertextual multimedia study of the film);

Acquarello. "A City of Sadness" (Annotation of Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 film, published by Sense of Cinema)