Overrated

Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

The first must-see film of the year.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I would never have heard about this Taiwanese film if I hadn't found it listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I hoped it would be a title that deserved its placement, directed by Hsiao-Hsien Hou (A Time to Live, a Time to Die; The Puppetmaster). Basically it takes place during a crucial moment in Taiwanese history between 1945, Emperor Hirohito announces Japan's surrender following 50 years of Japanese colonial rule, and the arrival of Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists four years later. Set in a coastal town not far from Taipei, it depicts the experiences of the Lin family, specifically in the lives of four brothers during the February 28 Incident. The eldest brother Wen-heung (Sung Young Chen) is a translator, he awaits the birth of his child and begins trading in the post-war black market. The second middle brother Wen-leung (Jack Kao) is a soldier, he suffers a traumatic brain injury whilst in prison during the war and is thought to have died in the Philippines. The youngest brother Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, works as a photographer, he suffers a nervous breakdown in Shanghai. With the brothers getting involved with complex issues, including drug dealers, the authorities and leftist guerrillas of the time, it will all inevitably end in the family's destruction. It is a simple of a troubled family that will all make choices that will lead to tragedy, I got confused whether there were three or four brothers, and it did get confusing when having to also read subtitles, but the scenery was nice to look at, and it certainly look authentic with the setting, an interesting enough historical drama. Good!

This is definitely one of my all-time favorite movies. Before watching A City of Sadness, I subconsciously had this notion that somehow there were certain ways (or methods) feature narrative films should be made. Oh…how wrong I was. Experiencing this movie was like… the first time I saw Asian art, no more like the first time I tasted Chinese food as a kid. It was more than different. It was delightful! This film totally enlightened me! This poetic masterpiece changed the way I view cinema. This film which deals with modernity of Taiwan, feels more like a Confucian ritual, an ancestral rite of some sort. And at the same time like many of Hou Hsiao-hsien's other films, this movie deals with the theme of 'growth'. Hou seems to tell us over and over again that growth is learning to say goodbye to the things we love. One beautiful movie. I strongly recommend it to the cinephiles who haven't yet tasted this great cinematic treat.

This film is definitely one of the best historical film i have ever seen!... putting aside all those clichés most filmmakers are tend to use: there is no such thing as heroic portrayal of martyrs or the use of extremely artificial dramatic art. That makes this film believable and, compared to others, very unique.Normally you would have a narrator who is telling you the story from his point of view. Now, i don't want to say that i dismiss this way of narration but "A city of sadness" does not need such a narrator; in fact it would shatter the special specific atmosphere of this movie if that would be the case. Without definitive narrative elements, the staging normally involves (narration/music/DP etc), the viewer gets the feeling that he is able to see for himself what the lives of those people were like when WWII ended. It is fascinating to witness how this very sober staging is still able to evoke strong emotions within the viewer. This is due to the directors vision but also to the cast which did an amazing job.It was also very clever to have the deaf Wen-Ch'ing as the main character so the viewer can sympathize with him very easily: like Wen-Ch'ing the viewer is kind of caught up within the political turbulence and is not to able react like he would want because he is mute ... and is therefore not able to speak up in a loud voice to stop the violence. He is forced to watch.Even today the topic Taiwan/China isn't solved at all. After watching this film people will surely get a better understanding why the struggle between China and Taiwan is so filled with anger, sadness, fury ...so ... that's definitely a must-see!! ;)

I'm having difficulties rating this film. I gave Hou's last film (that I saw), Dust in the Wind, a 7/10 because I felt it was slight and sloppy, but good nonetheless. CoS is even sloppier, but it is not in any way slight. However, when I'm desperately struggling to understand the film, trying to identify characters and interpret events, a lot of the power seeps away. I feel that the characterizations of DitW were more clear (if, again, slight), but CoS, despite its apparent cast of hundreds, I only identified with (and could identify, for the most part) the two main characters. However, I really did end up loving them and was very affected by everything that happened to them. Luckily, as the film progresses, it becomes less about everyone and everything else and focuses on those two characters, entering the genre of such films as The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Doctor Zhivago, i.e., movies where war is examined from the point of view of those who want desperately to live and love without hinderance, but keep getting pulled into the conflict. Still, the first three quarters of the film are very loose. I found myself saying often: "I can't recognize a single individual in this scene." I also kept coming back to the idea that this story would make a much better novel than a film. In a novel, it's much easier to follow the action.While Hou's narrative is still poorly devised (he wasn't the screenwriter, anyways), his cinematic technique is improving by leaps and bounds as I go from one film to the next. His shot composition utilizes depth to a great extent. We often see the action from a distance, and he uses the technique of blocking, putting characters and objects in front of the main action, to astonishing effectiveness. It makes us feel helpless in many of the more painful scenes.SLIGHT SPOILER: There's at least one amazing edit to which I have to call attention: the characters are all at a funeral and then there is a cut to an extreme long shot which encompasses a whole, small peninsula of Taiwan with the vast ocean behind it. In the distance, we see (and hear) a procession. I assumed it was a funeral procession, but the next scene reveals that it was a marriage procession, a marriage that I was beginning to doubt was ever going to happen. The funeral scene and wedding scene are masterfully connected with the intricate Buddhist ceremonies, and the emotional effects of this juxtaposition is marvelous. One more master scene that I have to point out is one where the deaf character (forgive me, but I tend to mix Asian names up and I don't even want to try) is in prison and soldiers take away two of his cellmates. We see a medium close-up of the deaf man and we hear two shots. I cringed, but of course, the character doesn't react because he can't hear them. The implications of that left me shivering.END SPOILER: So what am I going to give it, a 7 or an 8? I choose 7, but with the stipulation that I want to come back to it someday in the future to see if I can comprehend the narrative better. It's certainly a fine film, but I do feel justified in my complaints. There's also the fact that, as this is a foreign film, and it has a lot of dialogue, I'm so busy reading the subtitles that it is easy to miss who is who. One thing I don't want to hear from people is how important the events depicted are for Taiwan. That doesn't matter. I'm criticizing a film here, not history.