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A young couple who move to the big city, the search for orientation in the grown-up world and frequent returns to the familiar terrain of childhood are at the centre of this film. At first life in Taipei seems to offer the promise of modest contentment for the couple, which finds work and lodgings in the back room of a cinema, where there are also pleasant get-togethers with people of their own age. Wan and Huen live together in silent agreement until he is called up for military service and she marries another man in his absence. In a brilliantly casual and laconic tone and yet with great sensitivity, this film tells of life's major and minor upheavals.
Hou Hsiao Hsien, born in China in 1947, moved to Taiwan with his family shortly after his birth, where he later studied film at the National Academy of Arts. He is regarded as one of the most important representatives of the so-called Taiwanese Nouvelle Vague. The Forum showed his films A Time to Live, A Time to Die (1986) and Dust in the Wind (1987), before he achieved his international breakthrough in 1989 with A City of Sadness. Since then, he has been awarded numerous prizes at a wide range of international film festivals.
Production: Central Motion Picture Corporation
Camera: Lee Ping Bin
Format: 35mm, color
Running Time: 109 Minuten
Language: Taiwanese, Mandarin, Cantonese
