On August 15, 1945, the hoarse voice of the Japanese emperor sounded on the radio, Japan surrendered and the war was over. At the same time, a family surnamed Lin in Keelung, Taiwan also welcomed their newborn. Coincidentally, as soon as the child was born, the room that was originally dark and stagnant due to a power outage suddenly had electricity, and the surroundings were instantly bright. It seems to herald a new hope and light for this family that has experienced ups and downs in turbulent times. The turmoil will pass, and the future will be stable and peaceful.
Before that, Taiwan had been under the colonial rule of Japan for half a century. As part of the colonial rule, Japan forced the people of Taiwan to carry out a movement of imperialization - including "enforcement of Japanese", "promotion of Therefore, the people in the province who have a certain degree of education in the film can use Japanese, and traces of Japanese culture can be seen everywhere, while Lin Wenxiong, the eldest brother of the family who is not very educated, only uses Hokkien. The period of Japanese occupation left deep scars on this family. The second and third sons in the family were forced to participate in the Japanese war of aggression. Among them, the whereabouts of the second son were unknown in Southeast Asia, and the third son was an interpreter in the mainland, but was lost after returning to Taiwan. Consciousness, in a state of insanity. Whether they like it or not, every Taiwanese in Taiwan has to have an inextricable relationship with "Japan" . This relationship is a complex entanglement that is difficult to get rid of and even more difficult to face. In the words of the people in the movie, it is "Do we want enslavement yourself? Are we that cheap? " At first, they were "abandoned" in a straightforward manner, and now they are "returned" in a straightforward manner. The price behind this can only be left to the silent natives. The fourth son of the family, Wen Qing, and his companion Kuan Rong faced the situation of parting with their friend Shizuko when they were defeated in Japan and repatriated to the Japanese. Shizuo played the last tune, and Kuanrong could only listen silently. Finally, Shizuo handed over some items to Kuanrong's sister Kuanmei as a gift. Among them was a poem: " I will always remember you, go flying, I Then come, everyone is the same ."
Taiwan's local elites are looking forward to the arrival of the central government. They are full of ideals and believe in the future. At the wine table, a group of passionate young people sang the "Trilogy in Exile" - "September 18th". , September 18, from that tragic time, away from my hometown..." But what followed was not as good as imagined. On August 27, 1945, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Chen Yi as the chief executive of Taiwan, and Chen Yi began to accept Taiwan and organize administrative activities in an all-round way. , economic and other aspects of the executive office system .
In the economic aspect involving people's livelihood, Chen Yi is a firm nationalist and supporter of the control economy , so he continued the "monopoly system" of the Japanese occupation era and developed public undertakings at the same time, but his vision is very good, in the specific However, the implementation of the CCP has greatly affected the livelihood of Taiwanese, and the attitude of the local people towards the Nationalist government has taken a turn for the worse. The "Report on the Status of Taiwan" copied by the Secretariat of the Central Executive Committee of the Chinese Kuomintang stated: "The establishment plan of a Taiwan trading company was once reported to the Central Design Bureau, but was rejected by the relevant agencies after unanimous objection, and now it is re-established regardless of all circumstances. The Japanese control system is known to be strict, and the Taiwan compatriots have room to do business in order to make a living. However, our government’s measures in Taiwan have not taken into account the people’s welfare. The deprivation of the motherland is worse than that of the Japanese invaders, and shaking their confidence in the motherland is worth the loss.” The monopoly system restricts trade in the province, but due to the corruption of the Kuomintang government itself and the lax control of the grassroots level, a large number of officials and gang members can make profits under the control, resulting in rampant smuggling, rampant black markets, and large numbers of local enterprises. At that time, the magazine "Observation Weekly" pointed out: "Our country has studied fascism everywhere in politics, but only learned the fur. Now in Taiwan, the theory is complete, but there are problems in implementation. Just the maintenance of exchange rate in Taiwan means that it cannot be strictly and effectively controlled or implemented. Manage foreign exchange", can be described as pertinent.
In addition, there is more and more serious inflation affecting people's livelihood in Taiwan . Due to the needs of economic reconstruction, Taiwan urgently needs a large amount of capital investment, and the government's solution is indeed to rely on a large number of paper currency issuance, so inflation has become more serious. From January 1946 to February 1947, the price of rice rose more than five times, eggs rose nine times, and even salt rose more than 18 times. The rise in prices has made the original budget completely unable to keep up with the situation, and repeatedly added various temporary expenditures, increasing the government's reliance on borrowing. This is shown in the movie. When Kuan Rong, who was full of hope, and his friends met at Wenqing's place, they said, " How long has Chen Yi been here? In less than a year, the rice has risen fifty-two times " -they had already expressed concern to the Nationalist government. Gradually losing hope, thinking that the common people will suffer for a long time after the war of resistance. And the emotion of the family boss Lin Wenxiong is more representative of the feelings of the majority of the people on the island: " Anyway, the law is set by them, they can turn it up and down, we are the poorest people on this island, let's talk about Japanese, let's talk about Chinese, everyone eats, Everyone rides, no one hurts ."
The backlog of anger erupted on February 27, 1947, when a riot triggered a political upheaval that spread throughout the island, and many Taiwanese people began to participate in it, which is known as the "February 28 Incident". After the incident, the Nationalist government immediately organized the suppression, and an atmosphere of terror spread to the whole province. In the film, Wenliang, the third son of the Lin family, was beaten for being a "traitor". He was mistaken for a foreigner and nearly died, but fortunately he was spared an explanation. Lin Xiantang, an elite from Taiwan Province, summed up the five reasons for the outbreak of the "February 28 Incident": "Returned military family members were abused and retaliated (the story of Liang in the film reflects this reason); youth unemployment and rising prices (Chen Yi's economic measures ); ambitious people incite from it; students are innocent and easy to be tempted; corrupt officials are hated by the people.” For more specific reasons, Lin Xiantang summed it up as follows: " First, the relationship between personnel and personnel, there are nine division chiefs in the chief officer's office, secondly (chief) and section chiefs have no provincial people, and there are four or five county and mayor people from Chongqing. comers; Second, acceptance of the Japanese factories, mines and various clubs, are all public utilities, most of the pause, or even less production and more than the unemployed; Third, the return of overseas youth (retired Taiwanese Japanese), there are 30,000 to 40,000 People have no career, and the government does not try to do anything for it; 4. The price of rice and goods is so high that it is impossible to make a living; 5. There are many people in the province below the middle level who are corrupt and do not abide by the law, which makes people in the province look down on it;… There are various reasons for this , and then took advantage of the Monopoly Bureau's anti-smuggling monopoly to kill people and start a riot ." In the final analysis, the "February 28 Incident" stemmed from the failure of the Chen Yi government to properly handle the interests and relations with Taiwanese people in Taiwan. The people of Taiwan themselves are also pursuing specific rights and interests (democracy and autonomy) rather than pursuing independence . This is worth noting. .
Going back to the film itself, I personally think that what haunts the film is a unique sense of sadness in Taiwanese culture . This sense of sadness actually originates from some historical traumas in Taiwan's history. These traumas together constitute the historical memory of Taiwanese people. and identity resources, and today are borrowed, utilized and even reconstructed by various political forces on the island. Lin Wenxiong, the eldest, represented the majority of the island. He lived in the lower ranks and did not have much culture. He just felt anger and resistance to the oppression, and eventually died inexplicably. The second and third had a certain culture and received education during the Japanese occupation period. After the change, one's whereabouts are unknown, the other is regarded as a traitor, and eventually goes mad, while the fourth child can't listen or speak, and there are words of suffering, just like a symbol of Taiwanese people in Taiwan. gone. And director Hou Hsiao-hsien’s film language is most suitable for telling such a story. His camera language is forbearing and restrained, and he tries to show you the most real thing possible. "Let's start to tell you, and tell the "truth" publicly. That's the only way. There is hope that the hatred and hatred in the past will be resolved. This is his hope.
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