The Movie I'll Ever Miss: A City of Sadness

Bei Qing Cheng Shi (A City of Sadness), made by Hou Hsiao-Hsien in 1989, the movie that I'll ever miss. Impossible to find, even on Amazon, till today: one used copy of four hundred dollars!

A movie about the so-called 228 Incident, the infamous massacre from February 28, 1947, in Taiwan. And about that whole period.

Taiwan had been since 1895 under Japanese administration. Naturally the Japanese influence had been strong in all respects. Taiwanese intelligentsia was dreaming at China as their Motherland, while being actually shaped in the Japanese culture.

In 1945 Taiwan passed to China, only to find a new country in harsh civil war. KMT versus Communists in a ruthless struggle that left no room for nuances, genuine disagreements and the like. Anyone who was not keeping straight to the rules of your camp was suspected. Taiwan fell under KMT control, so naturally all Taiwanese were suspected; especially Taiwanese intelligentsia.

It would take a very long period of time to emerge a unique society in Taiwan, a unique nation. Now Taiwan is a vibrant democratic society: it emerged through lots of innocent blood; the massacre from February 28, 1947 made tens of thousands of victims, and it was followed by other brutal events, along the late forties and the fifties, and even later: the whole period is known as the White Terror; the martial law would remain in effect till 1987!

As I said, I haven't had the chance to watch the movie of Hou. It seems, from what I have read about, that Hou tried to understand the whole, that he avoided simplistic judgement: there are no bad guys and good guys in his movie, only two camps in a tragic conflict, that would eventually end in a unique nation. Today's Taiwanese inherit both the victims and the perpetrators, and it is good to fully understand both sides.

Naturally the 228 Massacre still raise passions in the Taiwanese society, so the movie raised many critics there (and I am making here a parallel with another great movie, made this time in Mainland China, Huozhe - To Live, of Zhang Y-Mou).

But I think in both movies the historical approach was right: your own past should be understood as a whole.

Anyway, it's sad I would not have the opportunity to watch A City of Sadness.

-----------------------------------------

And however, here it is:

(video by Just Relax)

(Hou Hsiao-Hsien)