Details

Release year: 1989

Storyline

The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s.

Top credits

Directors

Hsiao-Hsien Hou

Writers

Cast

Tony Leung Chiu-wai — Wen-ching
Shu-Fen Hsin — Hinome
Sung-Young Chen — Wen-heung
Jack Kao — Wen Leung

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Did you know

• In 1989, Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness, the first film to touch on the 228 Incident, a taboo subject in Taiwan, became a big hit in the theaters. As a result Jioufen, where the film was set, revived due to the film's popularity. The nostalgic scenery of Jioufen as seen in the film, as well as appearances in other media, charmed many people into visiting Jioufen. For the beginning of the 90s, Jioufen experienced a tourist boom that has shaped the town as a tourist attraction. Soon retro-Chinese style cafés, tea houses, and souvenir stores bearing the name "City of Sadness" were built.

• Tony Leung Chiu-wai's character was made a deaf-mute because the film used direct sound and Leung could not convincingly speak Mandarin or Taiwanese.

• This was the first Taiwanese film to be shot in direct sound. Director Hsiao-Hsien Hou wanted to capture the varied dialects and accents of his actors, reflecting the film's concern for the complex, heterogeneous origins of modern Taiwan.