Bei qing cheng shi (1989)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Hsiao-hsien Hou

Writers:

T'ien-wen Chu (writer)
Nien-Jen Wu (writer)

Release Date:

2 February 1990 (Netherlands)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Oppression | Gang | Knife Fight | Politics | Japanese Occupation

Awards:

6 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Sung Young Chen
Wou Yi Fang	...	Hinoiei
Nakamura Ikuyo	...	Shizuko
Jack Kao	...	Wen Leung
Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Tianlu Li
Ikuyo Nakamura	...	Shisuqo
Chen-Nan Tsai
Shufen Xin

Also Known As:

A City of Sadness (International: English title)
Bei cing cheng shih (Taiwan)

Runtime:

157 min

Country:

Hong Kong | Taiwan

Language:

Taiwanese | Mandarin | Japanese | Cantonese | Shanghainese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Hokkien, China

Company:

3-H Films

Trivia:

No.5 in the Hong Kong Film Awards' List of The Best 100 Chinese Motion Pictures

Beautiful; a Taiwanese "Godfather," but better.

This is the only one of Hou Hsiao-hsien's films I caught at a retrospective of his work, and it's a tragedy because this film is so incredibly good. Hou's rigorous formal approach (highly geometrical framing, repetitive shots along axes, distinctive use of lived-in colors) provides a framework for the film to operate within its own world. Whereas Coppola's "Godfather" goes this way and that, without a significant coherence, visually or rhythmically, "City of Sadness" feels like an elegy to Taiwan and the family (in much the same way that "Underground" is an ode to what was once Yugoslavia). At times funny, sorrowful, and invigorating, I suppose that what makes this film so special is that it refuses to operate in "big moments" and focuses, like Ozu (who Hou is often compared to) on the little events that make life what it really is.