City of Sadness, A

Aroview: The first of the director’s trilogy of films about the modern history of Taiwan, here depicting the unstable post-WW2 period through the eyes of family with one foot in the criminal underworld.

Impressively fusing a naturalistic regard for his character’s inner lives, an acute political awareness and quietly spellbinding storytelling, the dir. of this masterpiece is now seen as one of the most important in world cinema. Though the complexities of Taiwanese politics require some patience (if not active research), and as the characters themselves grapple with four different languages, this is well worth the effort, building to a magisterial spectacle of family history on the scale of THE GODFATHER.

NZ International Film Festival 1990

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