Yang’s outstanding second feature is a slow and methodical look at romance and conflict set against the modernisation of Taiwan.
Review #1,286
Dir. Edward Yang
1985 | Taiwan | Drama | 110 min | 1.85:1 | Mandarin & Min Nan
NC16 (passed clean) for some coarse language
Cast: Tsai Chin, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Ko I-Chen
Plot: Lung, a former member of the national Little League team and now operator of an old-style fabric business, is never able to shake a longing for his past glory. He is living with his old childhood sweetheart Ah-chin, a westernised professional woman who grew up in a traditional family. Although they live together, Ah-chin is always wary of Lung’s past liaison with another girl.
Awards: Official Selection (Locarno); Nom. for 2 Golden Horse Awards – Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography
Source: Chinese Taipei Film Archive
Accessibility Index
Subject Matter: Moderate – Modernising Taiwan; Strained Relationships
Narrative Style: Slightly Complex
Pace: Slightly Slow
Audience Type: Slightly Arthouse
Viewed: National Museum of Singapore (as part of the Hou Hsiao-Hsien Retrospective)
First Published: 10 Apr 2016
Spoilers: No
Taipei Story is Edward Yang’s outstanding follow-up to his debut feature That Day, on the Beach (1983). It has been regarded as one of the finest films about living in ’80s Taipei, starring Yang’s New Taiwan Cinema colleague Hou Hsiao-Hsien and popular singer Tsai Chin.
They play a couple who face the challenge of making ends meet in an industrialising city, while at the same time trying to better their strained relationship.
It is a deliberately-paced film, with its methodical look at relational conflict at the heart of the entire work. The main characters are confused beings. Lung (Hou), in particular, is stuck between two worlds – his past glory of being a competitive baseball player, and his meandering present trying to work a way to move forward in life.
There’s a sense of stasis for these characters, lost in the sea of change. Both harbour hopes of emigrating to America to start a new life. But would Taiwan be any different once globalisation and westernisation are at their peak?
The most memorable shot of Taipei Story is set on the rooftop of a building. Against an enormous Fuji advertisement display, two silhouettes are seen. The contrast is striking – two lonely, directionless souls are dwarfed by a menacing, unseen force.
Taipei Story may be somewhat depressing but it is realistic about reality. There is no escape, and even if there is a temporary respite in the form of companionship, Yang suggests that the world is not a bed of roses.
In light of Yang’s future masterpieces, A Brighter Summer Day (1991) and Yi Yi (2000), Taipei Story can feel like a minor offering in comparison but there is so much that the director has conveyed through the characters as they are set against the architectural cityscape that comparisons with Antonioni are not completely unfounded.
Grade: A-
Trailer:
Eternality Tan 
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