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Internet Guide for Chinese Studies Newsletter

http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/igcs/ignew.htm

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29 Jun 2004, entry by Matthias Arnold



New in IGCS - Film and Movies

(http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/igcs/igfilm.htm):



A City of Sadness



Ed./Corp.: Abe Mark Nornes and Yeh Yueh-yu, Cinemaspace, Film Studies

Program, University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA; 1992.

URL.: http://cinemaspace.berkeley.edu/Papers/CityOfSadness/

Language: English.



Self description: "[...] The film's complex representation of history,

combined with Hou's unique style in unraveling political taboo and his

portrayal of family life, inspire us to closely analyze the film. [...]

Because study of mainland China's history, politics and culture has

overshadowed any consideration of Taiwan, we have provided several

layers of contextualization for the reader and film viewer. City of

Sadness is an extremely dense film, and deeply engaged in Taiwanese

history (both past and present). These sections on context proceed with

increasingly narrow focus, beginning with the history of Taiwan,

examining the history of Taiwanese cinema, the 228 incident itself, and

the controversy that the film sparked. Hou's approach to narrative

filmmaking is quite unique and rigorously systematic. The section on

style will explore the contours of his filmmaking with great

specificity, and other sections on violence and writing will attempt to

connect these observations to representations of history. [...] There is

no order to the analysis; it is designed to work on varying levels and

areas. We invite the reader to proceed by whim."



Description: This is an extraordinary in-depth study of Hou

Hsiao-Hsien's well-known movie of 1989. It thoroughly analyses both

matters of style (style, sound, writing, photography), and many facets

of the movie's context - from a short history of taiwan and taiwanese

film over interviews with Hou and a discusuin of violence within the

movie to critical discussions about the film, a comparison between Ozu

and Hou. One can read the chapters by following the table of contents,

but there is also a "Hypermap" available, showing the structure of the

analysis with linked images.



Contents: (1) Table of Contents; (2) Introduction; (3) Conclusion; (4)

Hypermap of Analysis; (5) Authors' Biographies; (6) Bibliography; (7)

Behind City of Sadness (Context I: History of Taiwan; Context II: The

Taiwan New Cinema; Context III: The February 28 Incident; Context IV:

The Controversy); (8) Distant Analysis; (9) STYLE: An Introduction; (10)

Hou Hsiao-hsien Filmography; (11 City of Sadness Credits; (12)

Sound/Writing/Photography; (13) Hou Hsiao-hsien Interviews; (14)

Violence: Seen and Unseen; (15) soc.culture.taiwan Thread on 2.28; (16)

Ozu and Hou: Introduction.





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With kind regards,



Hanno E. Lecher



INTERNET GUIDE FOR CHINESE STUDIES -- editor

http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/igcs/



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