Taiwan is not only an inseparable part of China's territory, but also an extremely complicated part of the situation so far. To understand Taiwan in terms of geographical location, although it is located on the continental shelf, it is in a relatively "isolated" position from the mainland.
Although the island is small, it has experienced a rather rare historical "baptism". In the history of more than 300 years, Taiwan has changed hands five times, and was ruled by the Dutch, Ming, Qing, Japanese, and National governments. The interweaving of regimes of various natures has created a unique political and cultural background for this "boat in the sea", and it has also caused Taiwanese natives to always seek "roots", that is, the desire for self-belonging and identity.
Hou Hsiao-hsien's film "City of Sadness" was released in Taiwan in October 1989. However, 1989 was a very unusual year for the world: Emperor Hirohito died, Bush Sr. became president of the United States, the fall of the "Berlin Wall", and the upheaval of the Soviet Union and the East. , the end of the Afghan war; at the same time, the film sets the time as the period from 1945 to 1949, which played a decisive role in Taiwan's history. In just four years, it was "the crux of the political mythology structure of Taiwan for 40 years" [1] .
The unique encounter of the times makes it difficult for Taiwanese to seek their own place of belonging. Therefore, desertion, despair, and desolation are filled with the emotional tone of "City of Sadness", and the picture is therefore presented as "cold tone". In the desolate environment, Vincent, Kuan Rong, Kuan Mei and others in the film were also silent and refrained. Lin Wenqing was set as a deaf and mute, and they expressed their inner sighs in silence.
1. The mountains are silent, and the sea is close to the sky
After the end of the Anti-Japanese War, Taiwan faced not only changes in the political sense, but also the influence of Chinese culture. When Lin Wenqing left the restaurant and sat ponderingly in front of the barbecue stall, the song "On the Songhua River" came from the street. At the same time, everyone in the restaurant got up one after another, opened the windows and sang in harmony, and the picture turned to the bay mountains behind the building again. With the lyrics of "Wandering, wandering...when will I return to my lovely hometown" and the thunder that suddenly sounded in the dark clouds, the beautiful vision depicted in the song seemed to come to nothing. In the face of history, intellectuals who seem to take the initiative to study Marxist thought in order to achieve analogy are actually "chess pieces".
When reality is obliterated to the point that it is hard to reach, and life brings a heavy blow, simple emotional responses are often more "grabbing" than mania. At the end of Cao Yu's play "Thunderstorm", Sifeng, unable to accept the cruel reality, rushes out of the house and touches the wires in the rain and dies. At this point, the sound of thunder outside the house pushes the drama's emotion to its final climax. In contrast, the thunder of "City of Sadness" is softer, but its power does not decrease but increases. After A Liang was overwhelmed with emotion, his eyes were filled with fear and he calmed down. He was tied to the bed by the doctor, like a person who was "sentenced". What's even more unfortunate is that A Liang had just escaped from the bitter sea of underworld in the mainland, and after returning to Taiwan, he was bound to the hospital bed again. Whether in the mainland or in Taiwan, he always lived as a "patient". Thinking of this, he gradually regained consciousness and wet his eyes. What is "hometown"? At this moment, A Liang didn't say a word, his heart was twisted like a knife.
"The flowers are similar every year, but people are different every year." The mountains in the quiet place have witnessed the changes in Taiwan's history. After the war, Taiwanese people could not experience the joy of returning mountains and rivers. They were not only faced with the complexity of the alternate environment, but also with the "disconnection" of interpersonal relationships. In terms of politics, no one can speak for their troubles, and everything is hidden in "silence is better than sound".
Nowadays, there is a saying on the Internet that "intellectuals have become the most unstable factor in society". In modern society, this view is very far-fetched and lacks basis, but "Sad City" reflects it: as intellectuals, Teacher Lin, reporter He and his party have longed for Taiwan, which bid farewell to Japanese rule and returned to the embrace of the motherland. He also made remarks such as "bandits" and "no extravagant hope" about the rule of Chen Yi's Nationalist government. The two evaluations are completely different, reflecting the change of intellectuals' expectations for Taiwan's development to shattered dreams. Those who can see more truth than ordinary people think the most profoundly and dialectically.
2. Words are silent, look at this life on the watch
Narrative is the process by which the film prompts the audience to construct an evolving story based on the organization of the plot narrative and the stylization of styles. " [2] . In "Sorrowful City", the text mainly appears in the form of subtitles, and assumes the two main roles of objective event description and character text dialogue. "On August 15, 1945, the Emperor of Japan announced unconditional surrender. ", "I will always remember you, just fly away", "The photo of the second brother and the third brother on the expedition" and other subtitles, objectively and faithfully recorded the history of the Lin family in the film. Emotions deepened. The words that seemed to be incapable of speaking actually sent out a deafening cry.
The seemingly icy words actually make up for the possibility that the dialogue between the characters in "City of Sadness" will be interrupted due to emotional fluctuations. Therefore, as a product of language, writing adds to a certain extent the recording function that the language of "City of Sadness" cannot achieve. In terms of language, the film contains five main language types: Mandarin, Japanese, Cantonese, Hokkien, and Shanghainese. The interlacing of the five cultures reflects the uncertainty of Taiwanese cultural belonging. What language should they use as their official discourse? In the cognitive field of language, the characters in "City of Sadness" are in a "blank" state.
It is worth noting that in the movie "City of Sadness", the communication between Kuan Mei and Lin Wenqing was achieved through written conversation, not sign language. Moreover, the characters of the two are also similar to the ideal love image of the "talented and beautiful" style. Lin Wenqing, who is deaf and mute, tries to figure out the other party's intentions based on his mouth shape and strokes. Only in a state of extreme tension can he "hold back" a few vague words. For Lin Wenqing, he is an "outcast" of the historical trend, and his physiology deprives him of his ability to speak, just as politics "blocks" the mouths of Taiwanese; as a result, Lin Wenqing is unable to speak or hear. , it is the portrayal of the depressing and dull living conditions of the local people, and the heaviness of history is precisely the environment that requires silence to give the audience a chance to "break out in silence" and to think more deeply.
3. The photos are silent and freeze in "Taicang"
"The ancient Egyptian religion preached life against death, and believed that life would survive if the body did not rot. Therefore, this religion catered to the basic requirement of human psychology: to contend with time." [3] With the development of science and technology, the development of photography has Inventions have made it possible for people to record important moments in their lives, thus bringing humanity closer to reality. Director Hou Hsiao-hsien once expressed his aesthetic view: "My creative focus is the existence of the individual, which is the essence of life. The existence of the individual impresses me, so I shoot a group of marginal people and small people" [4] .
In "City of Sadness", Lin Wenqing, the youngest son of the Lin family, was caught in a "political whirlpool" because of his friendship with intellectuals, but he played the role of a relatively objective photographer. As a person who records human affairs with photos and cannot speak, he tells history in his own silent way. At the same time, the shot of Lin Wenqing repairing the negative in the film reminds the author of the faithful reproduction of the calligraphy and painting works by Guo Wenlin and his party in "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City". They are all examining history in a peaceful and delicate way.
In the last scene of the filming of the family portrait, Lin Wenqing deliberately dressed up before taking the photo, and walked to the "fake scene" to sit down with his wife and children. Compared with the set of warm Western-style families behind the three, their lives can be described as desolate and desolate, as the neighbors say: "Life is not easy". The contrast between reality and fantasy reflects Taiwan's "dirge" in a special era, and it also expresses Taiwanese's denial of the measures of Chen Yi's national government. Compared with the government's sworn promises on the radio, the pursuit of a better life seems "a drop in Taicang" and becomes worthless.
The birth of "City of Sadness" broke through director Hou Hsiao-hsien's taboo on Taiwan's "February 28" historical event, and it also reflects the realistic tendency of Taiwan's new film movement after the social "relief of strictness". As Hou Hsiao-hsien himself said: "The City of Sadness was originally an old Taiwanese song and the title of another romance film, which has nothing to do with politics" [5] . In drama movies, such as the tragic narrative of fantasy and reality intertwined.
In the living state of looming hope, Taiwanese people's path to "seeking their roots" is long and difficult. As individuals, they can only be "self-sufficient" under special circumstances. The social changes of the Lin family and the historical changes in Taiwan have formed a mapping relationship between the individual and the whole, and "City of Sadness" has thus achieved the reflection of Taiwan's "big family" through the small family of the Lin family.
History is also a blend of cultures. Looking back at the mainland, fifty-six ethnic groups are scattered in the vast land of China. The social changes and cultural integration for thousands of years have not changed the relationship of status to some extent. Still the "silent majority".
annotation
[1] Quoted from Jiao Xiongping, "Searching for Taiwan's Identity: The Local Consciousness of Taiwan's New Films and Hou Hsiao-hsien's "Sad City", No. 2, 1990, Journal of Beijing Film Academy,
[2] Quoted from David Bordwell, The Poetics of Film, 1st Edition, August 2010, Guangxi Normal University Press
[3] Quoted from Andre Bazin, What is Cinema? ", 1st edition, November 2008, Culture and Arts Press
[4] Quoted from "Hou Hsiao-hsien's Film Lectures" edited by Zhuo Botang, 1st edition in May 2009, Guangxi Normal University Press
[5] Quoted from Bai Ruiwen and Zhu Tianwen, "The Time to Cook the Sea: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Memory of Light and Shadow", first edition in March 2014, published by INK
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