‘Taipei Story’ – The Films of Edward Yang
A film I’ve been waiting to see for quite a long time is the first of the three big Edward Yang films: Taipei Story from 1985. Edward Yang was a Taiwanese filmmaker, who died in 2007 and was one of the leading figures of the Taiwanese New Cinema, together with Hsiao-hsien Hou and Ming-liang Tsai. This film movement started in the early 1980’s as new probings of Taiwanese society and history with questions about modernity and cultural identity. These three filmmakers produced an excellent series of films exploring the social realities of a changed urban, more modernistic context.
My acquaintance with the films of Edward Yang started with Yi-yi: a One and a Two from the year 2000. In Sweden this film got the title ‘Alone Together’. This deeply insightful film about the impact of capitalism and modernity on the family and the individual has stayed with me during the 10 years that have passed since I watched it. In particular the quote of the teenage daughter Ting-Ting, when she is struggling with the disparity between the hopes and expectations of life she had and how it is turning out in reality: ”Why is the world so different from what we thought it was? Now I’ve closed my eyes… the world I see… is so beautiful.”
A couple of years later I got the opportunity to see his highly-ranked almost 4 hours epic A Brighter Summer Day of 1991. Placed in the early Sixties it is about a teenager’s gradual downfall from innocence to delinquency. This classic, widely seen as Yang’s masterpiece, still has a lot to say to us about immigration and the price to be paid for the loss of cultural identity.
Last week I had the privilege to see Taipei Story. Martin Scorsese, who in the frame of his World Cinema Project re-issued this film in 2017, considered Taipei Story as one of the best films ever made. Taipei Story follows the course of a couple’s relationship against the backdrop of the city’s modernization and change. Lung is a former baseball player, who is now active in the business of his father, longing for the former times of glory. Chin is a career woman, whose career has come to a dead end through a corporate take-over. The film starts with an unforgettable scene, in which the couple looks at a new, empty apartment. You see them wandering through the empty spaces with its blank walls, with empty expressions on their faces, making you wonder if this signifies the hollowness and distance in their relationship. Then we get to know their lives, histories, family relationships, desires and frustrations, making us ask if there is a future for their relationship and how that might look.
Their story becomes the story of Taipei, as if Yang wants to say: we know its past, yes, and the present is full of alienation and hollowness, but the future is yet to unfold. Can the growing void be filled with life, warmth and meaningfulness? That is the question we’re left with.
Rinus, Aug 2021
*image and trailer posted for non commercial purposes under ‘fair use’ of copyright material in recommendation of the film
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Rinus, I have heard you quote the line, “”Why is the world so different from what we thought it was? Now I’ve closed my eyes… the world I see… is so beautiful,” many times and in different contexts. Nice to know the source. The apparent impact of this line on your thinking also reflects, at least for me, the power of cinema to give us words and images to express inner realities in new ways or perhaps for the first time. Thanks again for your investment in film and your capacity to share that passion though thought provoking reviews.