Every nation has some sort of historical trauma. The creepy and full of horror twentieth century did not miss anyone generously awarding each with a bouquet of mass psychosis caused terrible events. However, among the many big and not very countries most of all has gotten to China: war, revolution, famine, the occupation in the first half of the century and the severity of the second one. Mainland China having suffered under Comrade Mao with his Cultural Revolution, Hong Kong remembers the bloody riots of the 1960s, and Taiwan has gone through a difficult period of "White Terror." This is exactly what the most prominent Taiwanese producer Hou Hsiao-Hsien tells in his film. The East Asian cinema has managed to skilfully blend artistic innovation whilst outlining a political and social critique of their own home.
In 1945, after the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, the latter were forced to move out of the island and Taiwan fell under the authority of the Kuomintang. The Chinese population of the island, of course, was happy, but the new government was in no hurry to meet their expectations – full of corruption and thriving crime the life of ordinary citizens was certainly worse than even during the Japanese were in power. All this led to a rebellion, notoriously known as the 228 Incident, which was violent suppression by government troops. Thousands were dead, and Chiang Kai-shek impose military law (Yueh-yu Yeh and Davis). Thus began the era of the "White Terror", which lasted until 1987 - the longest in the history of Taiwan. The dictatorship of the Kuomintang was not much inferior in rigidity to their leftist counterpart on the other side of the strait, and they did not rush to remember an uprising was there located there a32ike - it was politically dangerous, and stir injury is always unpleasant (Dai Jinhua).
Hou Hsiao-Hsien is a representative of the so-called Taiwan's new wave cinema (Shie). This flow appeared in the early '80s. Prior to that, Taiwan mainly served a platform for filmmakers from neighbouring Hong Kong. Once in the early '70s all over the world rocked movies with Bruce Lee and Kung Fu fighters which the small Hong Kong simply had not enough space to shoot. Therefore, many directors were leaving for Taiwan. Filming a movie there was easier and cheaper. By the early 80s the public apparently has had enough movies with fights, there was a need for a more realistic and intelligent films (Yueh-yu Yeh and Davis). Directors in Taiwan began to make films that reflect a little real life of their country. Probably the most famous was Hou Hsiao-Hsien. His films are almost plotless, semi-documentary sketches of the lives of ordinary Taiwanese, the keynote of which is the depreciation of family values. Apparently, a very important issue for all countries in Southeast Asia (Qiao). It is no accident that in Japan the No1 director is considered Yasujiro Ozu and not Akira Kurosawa. Ozu shot all his films about the changes in Japanese society in connection with the industrial and technological progress and how these changes adversely affected the classic Japanese family values. Hou Hsiao-Hsien is considered a major follower of Ozu. He, just like Ozu does not get tired to explore the problems of the family in contemporary Taiwan from film to film. City of Sadness, is probably the best film of Hou Hsiao-Hsien in which he demonstrated the power of his directorial talent, in the end the film even won the main prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 (Qiao).
There is no such thing as a plot in the film. The camera floats from scene to scene, opening the following events one after the other in front of the audience - sometimes involving brothers, sometimes - without, apparently, any sense. The Incident 228, blood and death of thousands of people, passes somewhat behind the scenes. The characters learn about it only from conversations or e-mails (Shie).
Hou Hsiao-Hsien, is an author, “permeated with Eastern philosophy" has come in his last work (City of Sadness- his tenth film) by constructing the film as a stream of a slow river where long shots with the internal mise-en-scene are ductile and interrelated. On the screen, you sometimes see episodes closed in themselves, self-sufficient so that they may be perceived as "the microfilm." This is the principle of classical Chinese poetry, where the brushstrokes, often seemingly contrast with one another and in the unity of the poem merge into an indivisible whole. The dialogue, in which we are accustomed to seeing the characteristic feature of Chinese film, conveys not so much the content as feeling, something supra-temporal and eternal, which existed prior to the spoken word, and the word for it is only an external impulse (Shie).
One can only imagine how viewers watch this film in Hong Kong, which in 1997 became part of China, and the film, in general, is on how China's Taiwan is fighting for its independence with the self-determination and self-realization. , and - within the boundaries of the historical formation that is deployed in front of us on the screen - no he can not (Rawnsley). And only the final credits as if passes the baton to the next movie idea, "December 1949. The mainland has been lost. The Nationalist government has moved to Taiwan, and Taipei became the temporary capital. " This definition of "temporary" is well within the mainstream of nationalist demands to consider China one (the differences between Beijing and Taipei refers only to the external political mimicry), and it can be seen unequivocal tribute to censorship, which only recently has been weakened from the grip of Chinese law, with which the island struggled for decades (Wen). Or a reminder of a "inner censor." However, this contradicts the whole structure of the film, which shows how Taiwan is not a temporary shelter, but a fundamental establishment with their own historical roots. The people did not want to be "part of" Japan, as they at once tried to turn them into the Japanese; Chinese continentals came and wanted to do the same. However, the general trend is that the people associate themselves as Taiwanese (Rawnsley)!
Naturally, Hou Hsiao-Hsien shot his film primarily about his homeland and the island of Taiwan, a small country that could only get rid of the Japanese occupation, and the native China was already aiming to encroach on its freedom (Wen). It seemed to me, Hou Hsiao-Hsien was little interested in politics and everything connected with it. His concern is primarily the ordinary Taiwanese. And yet the film is completely devoid of patriotic pathos, for which the Chinese mainland films are famous. In the film, during the next feast we, for example, can hear complaints of the Taiwanese about the local government being made up of officials who control everything and shamelessly increase the price of rice and other foods without increasing wages to ordinary people (Rawnsley).
The Taiwanese could not be satisfied with such a state of things. Hou Hsiao-Hsien wanted to play the role of peacemaker (Wen). He wanted people to be able to remember, accept and move on. However, humble people do not want to do this. They needed the films, such as those that were shot about Nanjing Massacre - with piles of bodies on the streets, rivers of blood and the weeping women raped. City of Sadness was criticized (Hung).
It was the first film about the sad events, shot in China. Taiwan also for the first time was so clearly presented as a multilingual society, combining different cultures (Yueh-yu Yeh and Davis). Audiences and critics were impressed by the visual picture. The whole movie was shot in sequential shots of 43 seconds long each. Here professionals immediately caught up association with the films of Italian neo-realism. An unusually capacious use of off-screen space and particularly active use of short non-plot deviations, as if framing and reinforcing the main narrative line is also observed. Innovative use of the camera (especially in the episode, which takes place in a clinic) to involve the viewer in the space frame (Hung).
The movie for the first time, among other Hou Hsiao-Hsien paintings, unanimously received the highest score - both at home and abroad (Qiao). It was the first Chinese film that has received the main prize of the Venice Film Festival - "Golden Lion of St. Mark."
Of course, this is not so. Foreign viewers were able to much more gratefully appreciate the film - the Golden Lion in Venice, the Mainichi prize. But the City of Sadness for them was, above all, a cinematic masterpiece, and it is difficult to challenge. As a motion picture this is an impressive movie. Hou Hsiao-Hsien and his famous camera work, is simply contemplating what is happening. The director created an unforgettable atmosphere in colour. In order to speak of the meaning of even the smallest scene, we will have to go deeper and write about each separately (Hung).
The movie has actualy won before filming even started. The fact is that the very idea to shoot the long, almost epic saga about the fate of one family in the difficult time for Taiwan and not to focus on political events, but on the boring life of a family was a winner. Hou Hsiao-Hsien is not interested in who is right and who is wrong, who started the fight and whom it concerns. He captures the fear, frustration, insecurity. Anarchy and the subsequent repression are shown from the inside - from the position of the narrow-minded, utilitarian, noting down exactly how it has affected all of the individuals on the island. This conceptual minimalism is fully consistent with the style of the director. The style of the film is simple: the interior of closed space, still camera, small information content and the possible number of dialogues practically reduced to a minimum.
Of course, the viewer need to plunge into all this. Take in the imposed reality. Though, not all are ready. Then you can either admire the inertia of the "great writer" or make fun noting that the film is not easy to watch. To the opinion of many, the director has made every effort to neutralize the emotional message of the film. And apparently, the goals that he pursued have fully paid off as worldwide fame. And even if one would not think much about the film, considering that the director simply takes the viewer hostage and expects the appearance of the "Stockholm syndrome" expresses sympathy for calmer reflection. What is more important - this Asian saga, means that in the third or fourth viewing we will understand the notions of the director better.
Of course, to fully assess the City of Sadness one has to be a Taiwanese, and preferably, having lived in the period of White Terror, or someone proficient in the Hou Hsiao-Hsien symbolism or camera work. As for the "political" assessment, there is no reason not to believe Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Even in the City of Sadness the director, first is an artist (Rawnsley). A mastermind like him is not interested in stirring up the past conflicts and healing the wounds. It may be that the compromise on incident 228 will not be found, nonetheless Hou Hsiao-Hsien has done a great job to smooth and heal the effects of historical trauma. As a result, the East Asian cinema has managed to skilfully blend artistic innovation whilst outlining a political and social critique of their own home. The Taiwanese director has managed to depict a period of his country’s history that fully shows the despair and disgust of the actions of his own politicians in the era under the ruling of the Japanese and the mainland Chinese. More so, on its path to independence Taiwan has come against the many unruly and unlawful actions of the people in charge who were simply too interested in themselves, rather than the people.
A true masterpiece of Hou Hsiao-Hsien. A historical large-scale tragedy of the island of Taiwan after the arrival of the Chinese government in 1945, which resulted in hitherto almost unknown pages of history, such as the "White Terror" and "228 Incident". Moreover, it is not so much a historical film, as the story of a single family Lin. In addition, this story is told in such a way that one is projecting it to many other destinies.
For more than fifty years, Taiwan was under Japanese government, which had conquered it at the end of the 19th century. Over the years, the island has gone through a lot, but people gradually got used to it. After World War II, Japan surrendered and the territory was forced by the Chinese Kuomintang troops. This was done with pathos and pomposity of the so-called unification with the motherland and restoration of historical justice. But it is worth noting that although Chinese came to Taiwan and lived there, they were treated only as those "Continental", who gradually began to deploy the same terror, arresting and killing for any suspicion in collaborating with the Japanese. This is the truth that the Taiwanese people had come up against in their surge for independence. And it I exactly this that the great director Hou Hsiao-Hsien has managed to show in his film.
Works Cited
Dai Jinhua. “Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s films: pursuing and escaping history.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Vol. 9 (2). 2008. Print.
Hung, Y. -T. “Are Hou Hsiao-hsien's films political?: A study of gender, culture, history and aesthetics in Hou Hsiao-hsien's historical films.” University of Western Sydney Press. 2012.
Rawnsley, Ming-Yeh T. “Cinema, Identity, and Resistance: Comparative Perspectives on A City of Sadness and The Wind that Shakes the Barley.” Taiwan in Comparative Perspective. Vol. 4. 2012. Print.
Shie, Elliott Shr-tzung. “Chinese lyrical tradition and the Taiwan new cinema: The case of Hou Hsiao-hsien.” Asian Cinema. Vol. 26 (1). 2015. Print.
Qiao Li. “Taiwanese New Cinema: Emotions, Identity and Taiwan.” Asian Journal of Social Sciences & Humanities. Vol. 3 (3). 2014. Print.
Wen Tien‐Hsiang. “Hou Hsiao‐Hsien: a standard for evaluating Taiwan’s cinema.” Inter-Asia Cultural Studies. Vol. 9 (2). 2008. Print.
Yueh-yu Yeh, Emilie and Darrell William Davis. Taiwan Film Directors: A Treasure Island. Columbia University Press. 2005. Print.
