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A City of Sadness Photos

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Movie Info

Soon after Japan relinquishes control of Taiwan in 1945, the Lin brothers face hardships from the changing culture. Bar owner Wen-heung (Chen Sown-yung), the eldest brother, falls foul of local gangsters, Wen-sun disappears, and Wen-leung, scarred by his experiences in the war, ends up in an insane asylum. Deaf-mute photographer Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the youngest brother, decides to make a stand and fight the Kuomintang government from China that is assuming power.

Genre:

drama
Original Language:

Japanese
Director:

Hsiao-hsien Hou
Producer:

Fu-Sheng Chiu
Writer:

T'ien-wen Chu, Nien-Jen Wu
Runtime:

2h 38m
Production Co:

Artificial Eye Film

Cast & Crew

Tony Leung Chiu Wai
Wen-ching

Hsin Shu-fen
Hinome

Chen Sown-yung
Wen-heung

Hsiao-hsien Hou
Director

T'ien-wen Chu
Writer

Nien-Jen Wu
Writer

Show all Cast & Crew

Critic Reviews for A City of Sadness

All Critics (12) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (12)

The movie conveys the director's intensely personal struggle at the crossroads of large-scale history and private memory; with understatedly bitter irony, he depicts the birth of a nation at the price of a family's dissolution.

October 6, 2014 | Full Review…

Richard Brody
New Yorker
A City of Sadness is a great film, one that will be watched as long as there are people who care about the movies as an art.

May 20, 2014 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

Dave Kehr
Chicago Tribune
Hou turns in a masterpiece of small gestures and massive resonance; once you surrender to its spell, the obscurities vanish.

June 24, 2006 | Full Review…

Tony Rayns
Time Out
It is worth the long wait for the resonance of 'A City of Sadness to emerge.

August 30, 2004 | Full Review…

Caryn James
New York Times
Beautiful family saga by the great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien.

December 12, 2002 | Full Review…

Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Hou's film, which follows the Lin family's story, is an ambitious attempt to dissolve history into dramatic and poetic terms.

February 16, 2021 | Full Review…

David Walsh
World Socialist Web Site
Watching 'A City of Sadness' will give you a feel for all the different ways that people, even to this day, disagree about how to tell the story of Taiwan's past.

August 14, 2019 | Full Review…

Anthony Kao
Cinema Escapist
Hou Hsiao-Hsien's subtle compositions and meticulous pacing draw the viewer into the heart of the drama.

May 20, 2014 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

David Parkinson
Radio Times
A cinematic behemoth, something grand, incomplete, and sweeping.

October 29, 2011 | Full Review…

Glenn Heath Jr.
House Next Door
A City of Sadness compassionately articulates the suppressed, silent despair of a people repeatedly victimised as they search for inclusion and cultural identification.

July 30, 2010 | Full Review…

Acquarello
Senses of Cinema
The film is so complicated that you can understand why a number of Taiwanese magazines published family trees to help viewers follow each character's story, but if you can get to grips with it this is a fascinating history lesson.

July 4, 2006 | Full Review…

Film4 Staff
Film4
An ambitiously conceived, sometimes frustratingly elliptical family chronicle that shows one family's experience immediately following the Japanese occupation of the nation.

December 11, 2002 | Rating: 4/4 | Full Review…

Jeremy Heilman
MovieMartyr.com

View All Critic Reviews (12)

Audience Reviews for A City of Sadness

Mar 19, 2016

This strong and resonant historical drama moves with a deliberate pace and takes a good time to shape what it wants to say and find a focus, but the waiting is more than worth it and the result full of significance, even if it may be hard for the viewers to follow its intricate narrative.

Carlos M Super Reviewer
Dec 10, 2007

This is the film that put Taiwan on the map of films. It's one of the best films ever made.

Jojo S Super Reviewer