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A City of Sadness

Original title: Beiqing chengshi
1989 · 2 h 37 min
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien
DramaHistory

Cast

Tony Leung Chiu-wai Xin Shufen Li Tianlu

Credits

Written by: T'ien-wen Chu

Plot

A Taiwanese family, the Lins, lives through the end of Japanese rule in 1945 and the violent aftermath of the 1947 uprising, known as the 228 Incident, against the Kuomintang. The story is seen through the family members, among them a deaf-mute photographer. Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 film, the first to deal openly with this history, won the Golden Lion at Venice.

Sinekatalog’s take

Hou Hsiao-hsien's Golden Lion winner follows a Taiwanese family through the 228 Incident and its violent aftermath. Slow, composed and devastating, it was the first film to address the era openly and is a monument of Taiwanese cinema.Sinekatalog’s own editorial review – not a user or critic quote.

Ratings

IMDb: 7.7 / 10 (7,171 votes)
IMDb rating and vote count from the IMDb ratings dataset (October 2026). Scores change over time.

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