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A City of Sadness
Japanese DVD cover
Directed by	Hou Hsiao-hsien
Written by	Chu Tien-wen Nien-Jen Wu
Starring	Tony Leung Chiu Wai Sung Young Chen Li Tian-lu
Music by	S.E.N.S
Distributed by	Artificial Eye (UK VHS) Era Communications (Int'l rights)
Release date(s)	1989 (Taiwan)
Running time	157 minutes
Country	Taiwan
Language	Taiwanese Mandarin Japanese Cantonese Shanghainese

A City of Sadness (Chinese: 悲情城市; pinyin: bēiqíng chéngshì) is a 1989 Taiwanese historical drama film by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It tells the story of a family embroiled in the tragic "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government (KMT) after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s, during which thousands of Taiwanese were rounded up, shot, and/or sent to prison.

The film was the first to deal openly with the KMT's authoritarian misdeeds after its 1945 turnover of Taiwan from Japan, and the first to depict the 228 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred.

The film is regarded as the first installment in a trilogy of films that deal with Taiwanese history, which also includes The Puppetmaster (1993) and Good Men, Good Women (1995).

Plot

The film depicts one family's experiences during the White Terror. The eldest brother is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, the middle brother suffers a traumatic brain injury in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Lin Wen-Ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, hopes to flee to the mountains with his friend to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. By the end of the film even the photographer Wen-Ching has been arrested by the authorities, leaving only his wife to tell the story of the family's destruction.

Cast

The Lin Family

• Tony Leung Chiu-Wai — Wen Ching
• Sung Young Chen — Wen Shung
• Jack Kao — Wen Leung
• Li Tian-lu — A-lu (Grandfather)

Other Roles

• Xin Shufen — Hinoimi
• Wu Yi Fang — Hinoiei
• Nakamura Ikuyo — Shizuko
• Ikuyo Nakamura — Shisuqo

Awards

The film won the Golden Lion at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. The film also revived the ghost town of Jiufen, where it was set.

External links

• A City of Sadness at the Internet Movie Database
• A City of Sadness at Allmovie
• A City of Sadness at Rotten Tomatoes