City of Sadness
Part of the BAMcinematek series BAMcinematek Favorites
Sun, Nov 1 at 3, 7pm
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
With Tony Leung
(1989) 157min
"Given the panoramic sweep - which focuses particularly on the underworld and the political underground - Hou turns in a masterpiece of small gestures and massive resonance." —Time Out
This early Hou Hsiao-hsien masterpiece also features Tony Leung’s breakout role. Set in 1945 as the Japanese withdraw from Taiwan and cede control to China, the film contrasts the crumbling relationship of four brothers with the chaos around the rebellion and government reprisals. New print courtesy of Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles (TECO). Special thanks to Bernado Rondeau/LACMA.
Time Out on City of Sadness
"Loaded with detail and elliptically structured to let viewers make their own connections, Hou's film spans four fateful years of transition in Taiwan, from the defeat of the Japanese colonialists in WWII, when the island was returned to China, to the retreat to Taiwan of Chiang Kai-Shek's Nationalists at the end of the civil war in 1949." More