A City of Sadness (Film)

1989. Dir: Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Scr: Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Chu Tianwen, Wu Nianzhen.
Music composed by Naoki Tachikawa, who also composed music for Raise the Red Lantern. (which was also produced by ERA International)



Context:
The first film to make allusion to February 28 Incident (aka 228 or 'ererba') and the massacre of tens of thousands (estimated 18,000 to 28,000 casualties) by the KMT in 1947. Martial law had been lifted in 1987, and historical topics which had been suppressed and taboo to even mention, could now finally be researched and discussed.
First film in Taiwan to be fully recorded with synchronised sound (no post-production dubbing).

Much research was carried out by Hou and his writers, including first-hand testimonies. Part of the film's narrative was based on a piece of reportage by Lan Bozhou, 'The song of the covered wagon', published in 1988 and documenting the lives of the socialist underground during the colonialist period [More info in Island on the Edge, 55-56.]

Billed as 'The saga of a family, the saga of a nation'. (In Taiwan?)





The Film:
'Private history': as opposed to another Big History. History told from below, from perspective of those affected, even indirectly. Use of diary entries and family photographs.

Official vs. Unofficial History

The Lin family as microcosm of the nation.

Family tree:

Initial optimism at rejoining China at the beginning (a new birth, the light after the blackout) later foiled and deflated.
The oldest brother's line about Taiwanese 'mistreated by all, pitied by none'... also the name of the Lins' restaurant Little Shanghai -> ironic as Shanghai gangsters will be responsible for much of their troubles.

Use and meaning of traditional songs in the film (see Chiao essay in Suchenski).


"While listening to Beethoven, Kuanmei explains to Wenqing in writing that the music is based on a legend in which several fishermen, intoxicated by the beautiful voice of a siren, perish in their sinking boat. Like the fishermen in the legend, these intellectuals devote their lives to a beautiful but intangible ideal, which will seductively lead them to destruction"


Reception:
Winner of the 1989 Golden Lion at Venice.

"Later Hou instigated another, even bigger, cultural debate with the first film of his Taiwan trilogy. The criticism of City of Sadness (1989) culminated in the 1991 anthology Death of the New Cinema (Xin dianying zhi si). Contributors from various disciplines and backgrounds were not happy with Hou’s distant photography and obscure storytelling in his depiction of the regime’s brutality toward Taiwanese in the February 28 Incident, a major uprising against the Nationalists’ neocolonial rule. As the most horrific incident in Taiwan’s modern history, the February 28 Incident was then a collective trauma and has become a national scar. People were waiting to see some justice done in the film. But they did not. As a result, Hou was seen as a complacent, conservative artist who had yet to see the political light. The troubled local reception of Hou’s City of Sadness manifests the difficulty of coming to terms with history and historical representation of Taiwan’s scarred past."

Resources:
Berenice Reynaud BFI Classics
Peggy Chiao essay in Suchenski