Cinema · A way to begin
A City of Sadness
悲情城市
Hou Hsiao-hsien · 1989
Synopsis
In 1945, Japan surrenders and Taiwan passes to the Chinese Nationalists, welcomed with hope before mistrust, corruption and repression follow. In Keelung, the Lin family runs a modest restaurant. The eldest clashes with the gangsters who profit from the disorder, another brother, marked by the war, disappears after his arrest, and the youngest, a deaf and mute photographer, forms a bond with the young Hinomi, when the uprising of 28 February 1947 breaks out.
Context
The film received the Golden Lion at Venice in 1989, the first of the three won by Taiwanese cinema, and it is regarded as its director's masterpiece. It was the first to deal openly with the authoritarian rule of the Kuomintang and the massacre of 1947, at the very moment of the repression in Tiananmen Square. Taiwan submitted it for the Oscars, and its re-release in cinemas in 2023 revived the debate in Taiwan about the years of repression.
Who it is for
A long, contemplative film with an elliptical narrative; a few reference points on 1945 and 1947 help in following it.
Prizes and reception
Critics at the Village Voice and Film Comment voted its director filmmaker of the 1990s.