Hou Hsiao-Hsien closed out the ’80s with one of his most acclaimed works, toplined by future superstar Tony Leung Chiu-wai (CHUNGKING EXPRESS). Still undistributed in the U.S., A CITY OF SADNESS was a sensation in Taiwan for its frank depiction of the post-World War II era, when Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist government ended fifty years of Japanese rule and placed the island under a brutal martial-law regime. But for all its ambition, the film remains touchingly intimate, using the story of a single family to explore history through means both formally and narratively audacious. The first Taiwanese movie to win the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, A CITY OF SADNESS is an unparalleled landmark of Taiwanese and global cinema.

Co-presented by Austin Asian American Film Festival.

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Directed by Hou Hsiao-Hsien

Taiwan, 1989, 2h 39min, 35mm, In Mandarin, Min Nan, Japanese, Cantonese, and Shanghainese w/ English Subtitles

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Tickets: https://www.austinfilm.org/screening/a-city-of-sadness/