Taiwan New Cinema in 8 films

In the 1980s young directors in Taiwan turned to real life: family, growing up, and a history of silence under martial law. Long takes, quiet scenes and a deep sense of place.

1. 1

   A Summer at Grandpa's 1984Hou Hsiao-hsien · IMDb 7.6Two children spend the summer in the countryside. Hou Hsiao-hsien's gentle memory film that opened the new cinema.

   Next: Taipei Story ▾

   From a child's summer in the countryside, Edward Yang moves us to the city, where change brings adult uncertainty.
2. 2

   Taipei Story 1985Edward Yang · IMDb 7.6A couple drifts apart in the new, fast city. Edward Yang's first great film about the cost of change.

   Next: A City of Sadness ▾

   Hou widens the lens from a single couple to a whole family and a national wound that cinema had long avoided.
3. 3

   A City of Sadness 1989Hou Hsiao-hsien · IMDb 7.7The story of one family during the 1947 massacre and the decades after. Hou's film broke the silence on a forbidden chapter and won the Golden Lion in Venice.

   Next: A Brighter Summer Day ▾

   Yang looks at the same island from another angle, following a boy growing up in the shadow of that history.
4. 4

   A Brighter Summer Day 1991Edward Yang · IMDb 8.2A teenage boy joins a gang in 1960s Taipei and a tragedy follows. Edward Yang's long, great film of youth and fear.

   Next: Eat Drink Man Woman ▾

   After such a long and heavy film, a burst of warmth and appetite, with drama found in family meals.
5. 5

   Eat Drink Man Woman 1994Ang Lee · IMDb 7.8A master chef and his three daughters in Taipei, and the Sunday dinners that bring them together. Ang Lee's warm family comedy.

   Next: Vive L'Amour ▾

   The family table gives way to an empty flat, and the loneliness of the same city is told with hardly any dialogue.
6. 6

   Vive L'Amour 1994Tsai Ming-liang · IMDb 7.3Three strangers share an empty apartment in Taipei. Tsai Ming-liang uses almost no words and ends with a long final shot.

   Next: Flowers of Shanghai ▾

   Hou slows down even further, leaving modern Taipei for lamp-lit rooms and a closed world of the nineteenth century.
7. 7

   Flowers of Shanghai 1998Hou Hsiao-hsien · IMDb 7.2Courtesans and their clients in a Shanghai brothel in the 1880s. Hou shoots in long, slow takes lit by oil lamps.

   Next: Yi Yi ▾

   Back to the present-day city for a graceful summing-up, as Yang gathers several generations into one story.
8. 8

   Yi Yi 2000Edward Yang · IMDb 8.1Three generations of one Taipei family in a year of births, deaths and a wedding. Edward Yang's last film and one of the best of the century.

Taiwan New Cinema