I heard of A City of Sadness a long time ago but it was only in my Chinese Cultural studies module, Special Topics in Chinese Literature (which concentrated on Chinese literature and film) that I got a deeper understanding of the movie. And I have grown on it since then.

Just realized that my A City of Sadness VCD is faulty and most parts of it cannot be watched!!! And I can't buy another copy cos it's not available in Singapore and I bought mine in Taiwan!

Very sad...

But really, if you have the time and are in the mood for something to think about, then I recommend A City of Sadness, if at least only once.

If you still do not know, A City of Sadness is famed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsian's take on the notorious "228" incident that marked a period of civil instability following the surrender of the Japanese (it's still a hush-hush thing in Taiwan these days). However, instead of a political and emotional telling of a dramatic story, Hou chose to focus on the Lin family's struggle to live in these chaotic times. In Hou's tradition, he films every scene in a distance, clearly favours long takes and aligns his camera that forms an axis in his scenes, and such scenes repeats every now and then, enhancing connectivity.

While I am no expert in filmmaking, this style has been the key behind Hou's ability to draw the audiences into the everyday lives of his protagonists. And a strong plot by Wu Nianzhen, which cleverly uses techniques of juxtopositions and metaphors, documents the tragic fate of the Lin family, a representation of the common people of Taiwan who are prosecuted for reasons they could never explain, living amongst the violent rife between among the locals, the mainland Chinese, and the Japanese. Within the Lin family, the eldest brother strived to keep the family intact but alas received a tracgic end while striving to save the 3rd brother, who suffered mental health issues after returning from war. Second brother died while serving the war in South East Asia, while youngest brother, a gentle photographer, was a deaf-mute who could never hear the horrors around him but was nevertheless prosecuted for his connections with Leftists in the country. What is left of the Lin family in the end is a crippled and sorry sight.

Interesting thing about the character of the youngest brother, played by Tony Leung Chiu Wai, was that he was turned into a deaf-mute because Hong Konger Tony Leung could not speak Taiwanese or Mandarin convincingly enough. But fortunately, the character turned out to the the most powerful characters among the complex story plot, as not only because Tony Leung performed the character with his usual best (in fact, this is one of his best works), the silent character with a hearing disability provides a strong contrast to the brutality, trauma and chaos in the society.

Every character is feels real, each with his own sad story to tell, each living in constant fear of their environment, and you connect with each of these characters. In fact, one of the best said dialogues was this (the gist of it), as uttered by the eldest brother, Boon Heung:

"This island is pitiful. First it was the Japanese, now the mainland Chinese. We are being made use of, being ridden upon, but no one actually cares for us."

It's no wonder this film was controversial. However, political statements aside (Hou said himself that it was never meant to be political), this is one film has been described as one of Hou's most ambitious films, but is also one that has gained international recognition for its poignant recollections of one of the darkest days in Taiwan. And, as evident by now, it has become the darling of academics in the study of Taiwan films and Taiwan history.

Of course, I'm only a half-baked viewer of the movie. Look towards the experts for the complete picture:

http://cinemaspace.berkeley.edu/Papers/CityOfSadness/table.html

But am I running out to get more of Hou's films? No, actually, cos the only reason why I was able to appreciate it was because it was dealt with in detail by my lecturer for the module. Without this external help, I would have dismissed this as just another artsy movie which I may watch but will never understand. I've seen some other Hou movies and I can't stomach most of them.

Gotta get my hands on the DVD now that my VCD has been rendered useless. Maybe will throw in some of my favourite Wong Kar Wai movies too like "Chungking Express" (I did a report on that for the module!), "Ashes of Times" and "Days of Being Wild" since I'm in the mood for artsy films now and I feel like collecting songs and movies that have made an impact on me once upon a time.