Taipei Story

Taipei Story is a 1985 Taiwanese film directed, scored, and co-written by filmmaker Edward Yang — his second full-length feature film and third overall. The film stars Yang's fellow filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien, and singer Tsai Chin, whom Yang subsequently married. It is one of the earliest films of the New Taiwanese Cinema.

Not to be confused with Story in Taipei.
Taipei Story
Theatrical poster
Traditional青梅竹馬
Simplified青梅竹马
Mandarinqīngméizhúmǎ
Hokkienchheng-mûi-tiok-má
Literallygreen plums and a bamboo horse[1]
Directed byEdward Yang
Produced byHuang Yung
Lin Jung-feng
Liu Sheng-chung
Written byChu T’ien-wen
Hou Hsiao-hsien
Edward Yang
StarringHou Hsiao-hsien
Tsai Chin
Music byEdward Yang
CinematographyYang Wei-han
Edited byWang Chi-yang
Sung Fan-chen
Release date
  • 1985 (1985)
Running time
110 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguageMandarin
Hokkien

In the United States, Janus Films gave a limited release of the film's 4K restoration, done by the World Cinema Project, on March 17, 2017.[2][3]

Title

The original title, 青梅竹馬 "green plums and a bamboo horse", refers to Chinese plums and the childhood practice of riding a bamboo stick as a pretend horse. This idiom alludes to an 8th-century poem by Li Bai, and in China it refers to a childhood sweetheart. The English title alludes to the film Tokyo Story (1953).

Plot

A young woman (Tsai Chin) urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei, and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung (Hou Hsiao-hsien) is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.

Characters
  • Tsai Chin - Chin, an office worker
  • Hou Hsiao-hsien - Lung, a former baseball player
  • Wu Nien-jen - Ch'en, a taxi driver and former baseball player
  • Lin Hsiu-ling - Ling
  • Ke Su-yun - Gwan
  • Ko I-chen - Mr. Ke, an architect
  • Mei Fang - Chin's mother
  • Wu Ping-nan - Chin's father
  • Yang Li-yin - Ch'en's wife
  • Chen Shu-fang - Mrs. Mei
  • Lai Te-nan - a coach

Themes

According to the Doc Film Society, the film "displays Yang's uncompromising critique of the middle-class with its dissection of its heroine's emotional fragility, vainly disguised behind the sunglasses she sports day and night. As she flees the past, her boyfriend idealistically clings to it, a Confucian rigidity toward which Yang bears still less patience."[4]

gollark: Generally it *implies* money being involved.
gollark: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lobbying>
gollark: > Lobbying, persuasion, or interest representation is the act of attempting to influence the actions, policies, or decisions of officials, most often legislators or members of regulatory agencies. Lobbying, which usually involves direct, face-to-face contact, is done by many types of people, associations and organized groups, including individuals in the private sector, corporations, fellow legislators or government officials, or advocacy groups (interest groups).
gollark: ...
gollark: Often the industry's preferences conflict with people's, and they can't overrule that easily.

References
  1. https://plus.google.com/+jenniferZhuECL/posts/ZbsbtUgzNh2
  2. Anderson, Melissa (14 March 2017). "Past and Future Tug at an Unstable Present in a Restored Masterwork by Edward Yang". The Village Voice. Village Voice, LLC. Retrieved 3 April 2017.
  3. "World Cinema Project". The Film Foundation. The Film Foundation. p. 2. Retrieved 3 April 2017. Restored by The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project at Cineteca di Bologna/L’immagine Ritrovata laboratory...
  4. Choi, Edo S.; Iovene, Paola, "A Time for Freedom: Taiwanese filmmakers in transition", doc films Spring 2009 Volume 3 Issue 3, Doc film society, University of Chicago, archived from the original on 9 June 2009, retrieved April 14, 2009


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