" is a turning point in Hou Hsiao-hsien's career. Subjectively, his previous "Holidays", "Childhood Memories" and "Love in the Wind" are all growth stories, and there is a need for breakthroughs in the subject matter. , Objectively, his films began to sell less well, critics began to criticize, and more importantly, Taiwan lifted the ban in 1987.
The significance of the lifting of the ban is that the "February 28" incident, which has been like a sensitive word for more than 40 years, can be discussed openly and honestly on the table.
The ban was lifted in 1987, and the movie was released in 1989. Together with the later "Dream of Life" and "Good Boys and Good Girls", they were called "Taiwan Trilogy".
This film originally planned to use Chow Yun-fat as the male lead, but had no choice but to replace it with Tony Leung. In fact, it is not a big problem to change to a passerby. Hou Hsiao-hsien is not concerned with people. The protagonists in his films are time and space.
So at the beginning, Hou Hsiao-hsien said that Liang Chaowei was "too precise, and it seemed that he stood out from the crowd and created a gap with others." He showed Liang's previous scenes of several guest actors, the sense of realism - he hoped that Liang could be more extensive, Be direct, blend into the texture of those people.
I mentioned Chow Yun-Fat before, you can imagine the windbreaker and sunglasses, the gang fight, combined with a little background of social struggle, this movie will be a commercial epic masterpiece. But Hou Hsiao-hsien didn't do that. What I mean is that even if Fa Ge plays in the end, the film will still be heavily stamped with Hou's stamp. The reasons are:
a. The demands of the gang's rush are not the expression of individual heroes in the West, but the newcomers from other provinces who have just arrived outside Taiwan to disrupt the order and economy at that time in a violent way
. Hou Hsiao-hsien has always been obsessed with multi-threaded narratives. The gang representing the third brother is only one part, the big brother's business is one part, the second brother's military and horses are another part, and Kuanrong's intellectuals are another part, each leading to a different tragic ending. .
c. The film's story takes place in Keelung, not in Taipei, where the conflict was most serious at the time
. It is said that Tony Leung's role was made dumb because he could not speak Hokkien. The same is true when the elder brother comes.
For reasons a, after leaving Taiwan after Japan surrendered in 1945, Taiwanese are still looking forward to the reunification of the mainland. At that time, it was not gmd who first went to Taiwan, but those speculative businessmen with gangster elements, whose arrival destroyed the inherent economy and order. After the Nationalist government came to power, a series of dictatorship and corruption problems aroused the contradiction and hatred of the people of this province for people from other provinces. Then the hatred of foreigners turned into hatred of mainlanders. Therefore, today's disunity is largely due to the defeat of the Nationalist government.
Speaking of the movie, one of the scenes that moved me the most: several young people drinking and singing 918 together. It is easy to feel a sense of identity with their own national citizenship in them, even though they are still being suppressed by the out-of-towners.
The second: a line from my eldest brother "We are the most pitiful people on this island, the Japanese, the Chinese, everyone rides, everyone steps on, no one hurts." And the previous sentence "When the "Treaty of Shimonoseki" was signed, who asked Are we Taiwanese willing?"
The third echo: Liang Chaowei was waiting in the cell for the trial. Because of the inability to speak, this paragraph, which should have been very tragic and solemn, was dealt with in a very depressing manner, and the sense of perversion was obvious.
Fourth: Liang brought the teacher's belongings to his wife, who opened the cloth and wrote "We want to live with dignity". Few of the sensational scenes in the movie.
Hou Hsiao-hsien said: "I did not make "Sorrowful City" to uncover old wounds, but I think that if we want to understand where we came from, we must face ourselves and our own history. The film does not only focus on 228 The incident, but I think some things must be faced and resolved. This taboo is too long, and I feel the need to shoot."
Watching this film now, the timing is quite interesting.
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