A City of Sadness (1989) was the first Taiwanese film to win the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival.
It follows the Lin Family in a coastal town near Taipei from 1945 to 1949, between the end of 50 years of Japanese colonial rule and the establishment of Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Government in Taiwan.
It was a time of chaos, with 2.2 million military personnel and civilians fleeing from the Chinese Mainland to Taiwan.
The island’s population of 6 million at the time mainly consisted of descendants of early Chinese settlers who had lived there for more than 300 years and who now identified themselves as Taiwanese.
In the film, the Lin Family is headed by the eldest son Wen-Hsiung, while the second son was conscripted by the Japanese as a military doctor but disappeared in the Phillipines during the war.
The third son becomes involved with gangsters from Shanghai and is imprisoned and tortured, suffering brain damage as a result.
The fourth and youngest son Wen-Ching is a deaf photographer who communicates with others in writing.
It is from the perspectives of Wen-Hsiung and Wen-Ching that the Nationalist Government’s authoritarian rule and economic mismanagement are examined.
Also through the eyes of the brothers, the film tackles the background and legacy of the February 28 Incident.
The infamous event marked the beginning of the 40 year-long “White Terror”, the political repression of Taiwanese civilians and political dissenters under the rule of the Kuomintang (KMT). As Wen-Hsiung says: “This island is so pitiful. First the Japanese, then the Chinese. They all exploit us and no one gives a damn.”
It is heart-wrenching seeing the brothers being torn out of their small world and assaulted by the cruel reality where people are executed and their livelihoods destroyed by the government that is supposed to take care of them.
With that said, this is a very subtle film, with our understanding of the traumatic regime change gradually deepening as we observe the characters’ actions and emotions.
There is a strong contrast between the Taiwanese, who have thrived on the island for generations, and the Mainlanders, who are portrayed as decadent and indulgent.
But there is no criticism – and it feels there is an artistic distance deliberately kept between the characters and the audience – as we are invited to witness the profound impact of political, social and cultural turmoils on ordinary individuals.
In this regard, Wen-Ching’s silence is particularly deafening, as it adds to the considerable divide between his inner world and the horrific events occurring around him.
There are multiple languages used in the film, but Wen-Ching’s silence reflects the voicelessness enforced upon the Taiwanese people.
A remarkable masterpiece, the film encourages and enriches our reflection of the past and how it influenced our present life.
In this sense, how the violence and oppression of the “White Terror” led to the emergence of the Taiwanese identity and particularly the island nation today as a true democracy.
