A City Of Sadness

Finally, there is a new print of A City of Sadness, one of Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien’s greatest works, inaccessible for many years. The film chronicles the lives of the Lin family during the turbulent four years between the Japanese withdrawal from Taiwan (after 51 years of occupation) in 1945, to the secession of Taiwan from mainland China in 1949. Hou’s breathtaking use of color, calmly precise cinematography and elliptical storytelling combine to make the film a masterpiece. (1989, 157 min, 35mm)