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Hou’s achievement in this film is to find a rare balance between the personal and the political in recovering for the Taiwanese what has been a repressed history: the years of 1945-49, from the end of Japan’s colonial rule to the proclamation of Taipei as the ‘temporary’ capital of China by Chiang Kai-Shek’s defeated Kuomintang government. The members of the Lin family represent different aspects of the Taiwanese predicament. Hou maintains a distance from the family melodrama through his long take/fixed angle aesthetic in constructing a panorama of characters and incidents in which no one has privileged status (Reference: Review by Tony Rayns in Monthly Film Bulletin, June 1990). Cast includes Li Tian Lu (Li Tien-Lu), Chen Song Yong (Chen Sung-Yung) and Gao Jie (Kao Chieh). In Mandarin, Hokkein, Shanghaiese, Cantonese and Japanese with English subtitles.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
313200
Languages
Chinese
English
Japanese
Audience classification
MA
Subject categories
Advertising, Film, Journalism, Mass Media & TV → Foreign language films
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Family - Asia
Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Taiwan - Social life and customs
Family, Gender Identity, Relationships & Sexuality → Family - Asia
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
VHS; Access Print (Section 1)