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Jack Kao, Giong Lim, Annie Shizuka Inoh

Hou Hsiao Hsien rounds out his loose trilogy on Taiwanese history -- The Puppet Master dealt with Japan's occupation of the island and City of Sadness focuses on Chiang Kai-shek's bloody occupation im... read more read more...mediately following the war -- with this mediation on the anti-Communist campaign during the 1950s. The story is ostensibly about the real life events of Chiang Bi-yu (Annie Shizuka Inoh), who ventures to China with her new husband, Chung Hao-tung (Lim Giong), to join the anti-Japanese resistance along with three other friends. Once in China, they are immediately suspected of being Japanese spies and are almost executed. While working with the resistance, Chiang is forced to give up her first-born child -- the call of the motherland had no time for motherhood. When the war ends, they return to Taiwan. Chung takes a job as the principal of a school in the south of the island and starts a Marxist journal called the Enlightenment. As the Red Army swept down the Korean peninsula, Chiang Kai-shek -- at the behest of the Americans -- instituted the White Terror, which rooted out communists of every color. Soon Chung and Chiang are rounded up and brutally interrogated. Chiang is eventually released to her small brood of children while Chung is thrown against the wall and shot. Hou complicates this narrative by layering an additional story line about an actress, Liang Ching (also played by Annie Shizuka Inoh), who is rehearsing for a movie about the life of Chiang Bi-yu. Still reeling from the murder of her gangster boyfriend, Ah Wei (Jack Kao), three years previous, Liang is being faxed daily pages of her stolen diary, forcing her to confront her past. Soon the borders between the lives of Chiang and Liang become less and less distinct. This film was dubbed the single best film of the 1990s by Cahier du Cinema. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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68% liked it

1,036 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 48 min.

Directed by: Hsiao-hsien Hou

Release Date: October 7, 1995

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DVD Release Date: February 19, 2002

Stats: 34 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (34)

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Critic Reviews

Nick Schager
May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

A fractured tale of personal and national treachery. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
October 12, 2001
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Ms. Inoh gives an inspiring performance that evokes a genuine sympathy for both of her characters. Full Review

Caryn James
May 20, 2003
Caryn James, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

Emanuel Levy
June 13, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

Derek Adams
June 24, 2006
Derek Adams, Time Out

Click to read the article Full Review

Marjorie Baumgarten
March 10, 2003
Marjorie Baumgarten, Austin Chronicle

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