A City of Sadness

Unfortunately despite the film's marvellous beauty, and some of the wonderful details such as the photo motif or having the funeral segue into the wedding, and the deaf man's story which I liked very much, I found the film very difficult to engage with emotionally and even more difficult to keep up with the plot of (in particular I have no idea what happened during the mob/drug smuggling section). I very much need to see it again (ideally on the big screen).

Hou's movies seem like a whole lot of nothing to me. As is often the case with his stories, this one takes you a while to figure out who everyone is and what their relations are to each other. It's been likened to a Taiwanese Godfather, which I guess is reasonable. It does have a kind of epic sweep to it, and plotwise, it's actually pretty substantial for a Hou film. It has some nice moments, and is perfectly competent filmmaking. But once again it didn't resonate much with me.

More political, less intimate than some of Yang's work (which is sadly my only basis for comparison). It feels far more staid and reserved in comparison, and given that I have only passing familiarity with the political context in which it's operating, it never gripped me to the same extent. It is, however, a fine enough story of a family's existence being upended by political turmoil, tastefully shot with a formalist's eye for composition.

Hou's compositions are gorgeous throughout, but this movie regards its action with such distance that I found it hard to get drawn into the complex story it tells.

City of Sadness knows that it is supposed to be a "landmark epic" of Taiwanese historical cinema, but it slogs its way toward that end disinterestedly and dispassionately - even while depicting horrible events. It is not for being sparse and leisurely that this film is boring, but because for most of its long running time it is simply insubstantial.

It failed to really get me involved despite the fact the kind of stuff it tackled really appealed to me. It's solid film making, don't get me wrong, I just failed to get engaged. I wish I could give it a higher store.

the first film to deal with the 228 Incident... 侯孝賢 paints a tragic allegory set just outside Taipei, that is respectful and rich with subtext. i watched this at a matinee screening in Taipei, so i picked up emotional cues from the teary people around me during scenes whose innuendo was lost on me.

It's beautifully made, but I found it overly slow, at times even making me sleepy. I found it pretty difficult to engage with fully, and it all feels a little disjointed and distant.

History of emerging Taiwan : Story of Innocence , pain and sadness!!!

Estreava há exatos 30 anos no Festival de Veneza, onde ganhou o Leão de Ouro. Esse é meu primeiro Hou Hsiao-Hsien . A primeira experiência com o diretor foi muito grata, apesar de me faltar conhecimento sobre o Incidente 228 e a história do Taiwan de maneira geral, o filme se mantem bem como um brilho do olhar histórico do pós-guerra através da estruturação de uma família, nesse sentido me lembrou um senso épico a la Poderoso Chefão de apropriação de uma era. DVDRip no MakingOff.

As others have pointed out this is pretty hard to follow. I suggest you look up Taiwan's history from 1945 onwards first. But even then the plot isn't that clear. But it doesn't have to. It's a melancholic and strangely engaging film where something shimmers from beyond the pictures. With its topic about the flow and finitude of everything it reminded me of Tarkovsky. Quiet, intimite, great.

astonishing story, but yet not that great in cinematography. all the relations between characters are left unelaborated, and the connections between the scenes are left weak.

A fine vintage for a connoisseur of complex blocking.

A City of Sadness: Birth of a Nation. / Every country and nation has a film that defines that nation; Taiwan is a lucky one.

"Deafness" is the ultimate motive of that movie: a feeling of disability emanating from the partition of Taiwan which is embodied in the charachter of Weh-Ching, hence the movie has also a silent and disabled attitude towards its narration: a distanced camera waits for the time to flow by keeping certain places constant, like the effort of memory to remember the good past days. But still the movie seems too much of a family drama and lacks the poetry it seems to offer at the beginning.

#349

Hou at his finest? Would possibly be a 100 for me if the "Red Monkey"/Shanghai gangsters-segment weren't so confusing.

The very subdued style is a bit tough at times, but the content is very good. This kind of personal view of history can sometimes make it hard to take it all in for those unaware of the background, but Hou does a good job of making the context understandable and the characters sympathetic enough to want to explore the film.

Hou's style is reminiscent of Yasujiro Ozu so for many people it will be a love or hate it affair. There is a similar style of layered static compositions and the events of a family as the centerpiece which requires you to pay attention to the subtle details. There's no grand sweeping plot but just a Taiwanese family's experiences during the birth of a nation. Hou's naturalistic approach is excellent and thankfully avoids the use of contrived emotional plot devices or dramatic resolutions.

329

Boring scene/landscape/boring scene/landscape/not so boring scene/landscape/boring scene/landscape....

305

A beautiful, heavy-hearted film. The consistently restful and fervidly considerate cinematography and moody music nourish the film's historical outline with a sincere humanism difficult to dismiss.

# 308

As a social symbol, it's groundbreaking; effectively the birth of Taiwanese national cinema and the subject is fitting. Hou set the standard for 15 years of Chinese-language cinema with this multi-generational epic, a template still used today.