Film / A City of Sadness

A City of Sadness is a 1989 film from Taiwan directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien.

The setting is 1945-1949, in Taiwan immediately after the war. With the Japanese surrender Japan gave up Taiwan, which they held as a colony for fifty years, and the island reverted back to control of mainland China and its ruling party, the Kuomintang (KMT). Surprisingly, liberation and reintegration with mainland China actually makes things worse for the Taiwanese. A deeply corrupt, kleptocratic KMT administration begins exploiting Taiwan even more than the Japanese did. As conditions worsen, opposition builds.

The story centers around the Lin family, natives to Taiwan. One brother, a doctor, was drafted into the Japanese army and is MIA from the Philippines. The three surviving brothers are:

1. Wen-heung (Chen Sung Young), the oldest brother. Owns a restaurant, but is also a low-level gangster involved in smuggling goods to and from mainland China.
2. Wen-leung (Jack Kao), the third brother. Fought for the Japanese in the Philippines, suffering from a severe case of PTSD. After coming back to Taiwan, he gets involved with some Shanghai gangsters.
3. Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu-wai), the youngest brother. Works as a photographer. Deaf and dumb, due to a childhood accident.

The brothers and their extended family are buffeted by fate, as the KMT extends its iron grip on Taiwan, and the Taiwanese resist.

Star-Making Role for Tony Leung. Supposedly the character of Wen-ching was made a deaf-mute because Leung, who is from Hong Kong and speaks Cantonese, couldn't speak Mandarin or Taiwanese well enough.

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Tropes:

• As You Know: Grandpa Lin asks Wen-heung "Did you tell your brother you were coming?", and Wen-heung answers "I wrote to Wen-ching," thus explaining to the audience the names and relationships of two of the three brothers.
• Battle Discretion Shot: The infamous "February 28 incident", a 1947 massacre in which at least 18,000 Taiwanese were massacred by the KMT authorities, is not shown. Characters talk about it afterwards and KMT governor Chen Yi makes ominous statements on the radio.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: A metaphorical one. In the opening scene, Emperor Hirohito's 1945 surrender message ending World War II plays on the radio...while Wen-heung's mistress is delivering his illegitimate son. The metaphor of Imperial Japan dying and a new Taiwan being born is obvious.
• Day of the Jackboot: Shockingly, the people of Taiwan become less free when their Chinese countrymen take control, after Taiwan spent 50 years as a Japanese possession. The KMT takeover of Taiwan begins a time of violent repression, as a corrupt, brutal government crushes the people.
• Downer Ending: Wen-heung is shot and killed by the Shanghai gangsters. Hinoiei and his La Résistance band has been apprehended, their fate unclear but probably a very bad one. And Wen-ching has been arrested as well, despite playing no active part in the anti-KMT resistance. The remnants of the Lin family face a very uncertain future.
• The End: The end credits have "The End" in both Chinese and English, in a 1989 film many years after it was no longer fashionable to put "The End" at the end of the movie.
• In the Back: How Wen-heung dies. A particularly senseless argument between one of his men and one of the Shanghai gangsters leads to a brawl, which eventually ends with Wen-heung being shot In the Back and killed.
• It Always Rains at Funerals: It's rainy and foggy at Wen-heung's funeral, after he's shot In the Back by a Shanghai gangster.
• Leave the Camera Running: The camera almost never moves. Every shot is a static shot, with the actors being in the medium distance or far away. Most scenes are long takes.
• Motif: Over and over and over again, shots are framed with the camera on one side of a door or doorway, showing the action taking place on the opposite side of the doorway in the next room.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Wen-leung. When he first returns from the Philippines he is so mentally disturbed that he has to be tied down on his bed in the infirmary, to stop him from attacking the nurses. He manages to recover well enough to be part of his brother's gang, but his erratic behavior leads to tragic consequences.
• Slouch of Villainy: Kim-tsua, one of the Shanghai gangsters who are muscling in on Wen-heung's business. He's slouching casually with a cigarette in his hand as he says that yes, he killed "Red Monkey" (one of Wen-heung's men) because he thought Red Monkey was trying to cheat him.
• The Speechless: Wen-ching, left a deaf-mute after an accident he has as a child.
• Suspiciously Specific Denial: Chen Yi, the KMT governor of Taiwan, feels the need to announce on the radio that the people should "take no notice of rumors about spies" among them.
• Torches and Pitchforks: As Hinomi's hospital is taking in victims from the riot, those victims are chased by a torch-wielding mob screaming "Death to the mainlanders!". The Feb. 28 massacre takes place the next day.
• The Voice
  • The film opens with Emperor Hirohito's August 15, 1945 radio message announcing Japan's surrender.
  • Later, Chen Yi, the Kuomintang governor of Taiwan, is heard on the radio several times, giving increasingly ominous proclamations as the KMT crushes dissent in Taiwan.
• Voiceover Letter:
  • How Ah-shue's letter is delivered, when she asks her uncle Wen-ching to help get her other uncle Wen-leung out of prison.
  • Hinome's diary entries function this way. She recounts in her diary how her brother Hinoiei has disappeared into the mountains, part of an anti-KMT guerilla group.