A Cidade das Tristezas (1989)

Slow paced, depressing and slighlty messy

If you are looking for something cheerful and happy, you may think that a tittle named city of sadness should give you a clue to look away and find something else and well you would be right. AS this movie is true to its name and will offer you a bunch of sadness and cries as well as symbolism as far as the aye can se. As I do not think it is a coincidence that the movie starts of with a boy named light making his way out from the darkness of the war/womb and in to the light as Taiwan was libirated from the Japanese.


This is a movie that shows human being living in a time where when one war ends another takes over. Day to day life meets a guy running towards you with a knife. Babies cry as they are taken out to a court yard to be shot with a bunch of other people.. The enamy changes and the wrong answer to the question are you japaneese, Mandarin or Taiwanese can get you killed by, showing an added dificulty to those who can not hear. a mob... but than again even the right answers can get one killed at this time...

But rest assure!

"I want to assure those who love peace that this decree is for your protection,, take no notice of roumers about spies. because suspicuion leads to fear, I assure all citizens that obay the law that nothing will happen to them. Meanwhile I announce the reintroduction of martial law Our objective is merely to punish rebels and traitors, for each day they are at large peace loving people will have to put up with another day of disorder" -

This movie is highly acclaimed so while I did not really find it entertaining I am sure it has a lot of qualities for those who are more well educated than I am as I found it kind of boring and hard to follow

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Sadness and brokenness

What should I say? I have a kind of weakness towards films that are based on real events. I will like them anyway. (Please check the historic background of the movie yourself too! You won't understand it otherwise. This movie was the first movie ever made about this event.)
I guess this one I found even more beautiful because I've been to Jioufen/Jiufen before (where the movie is set), and to see how beautiful the place looked like in the past, and how similar, makes me feel sentimental. I recognized some streets and the view of the coastline was exactly the same as I have seen.
This amazing cast also makes the movie great. I especially liked how they incorporated the many different languages that were spoken at the time. In one scene, 3 different languages were spoken and 2 people were translating. Another thing I liked was the cinematography. It's a movie where you don't always know what is exactly happening, you have to wait and find out together with the characters. The length of scenes, the point of view of the camera, the way the camera would stay in place and sometimes a character would go just outside of the frame but still the scene continued, and the use of music, especially having no music in the longer scenes where the deaf male lead was communicating through writing, it all elevates the experience of the movie.
The story itself shows many different emotions, but it does indeed end with sadness and brokenness. And knowing the history, it's not just for the city, the story is bigger and continues even after this movie.

Is this the best movie you will ever see, it depends on what you like but probably not. Is this an impressive masterpiece about important history, with a story that is needed to be told. I think it is.

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