A City of Sadness was filmed on location in
Jiufen, a former Japanese and declined gold mining town that continued to operate in the postwar period until the 1960s. Jiufen is located in the northeast of Taiwan, an area isolated from the rest of Taipei County and Yilan County. There are only rough county roads and a local commuter railway line connecting Jiufen to the outside world, which designated a low priority for urban revitalization and land development. Jiufen's hillside communities were constructed before the modern zoning codes were put in place, and therefore provided a small Taiwanese town feeling and atmosphere that symbolizes the historical period that is presented in the plot of
A City of Sadness. Hou remembers Jiufen fondly as he traveled to Jiufen through a tourist gaze when he was young. The shooting of the scenes of train travel to Jiufen particularly evoked his nostalgic rhetoric and joyful memories of a high school trip to Jiufen with his school friends. Hou noted that the train in Taiwan is a very important mode of transportation and he would ride the train a lot. It is very hard for him to forget the connection between him and the trains, so the train tracks appear multiple times in the film.
Background By the 1980s, the New Taiwanese Cinema movement was moving towards not just creating films for the people of Taiwan, but also for a larger, international audience. Directors Hou Hsiao-hsien and
Edward Yang noted that they wanted to emulate the popularity of
Hong Kong cinema, which revolved around high quality productions with strong star power to back it up. Hou Hsiao-hsien wrote:"Everybody knew about the 228 Incident. Nobody would say anything, at least in public, but behind closed doors everyone was talking about it, especially in the
Tangwai Movement [..] The 228 Incident was already known, so I was more interested in filming a time of transition, and the changes in a family during a change in regime. This was the main thing I wanted to capture... There's been too much political intervention. We should go back to history itself for a comprehensive reflection, but politicians like to use this tragedy as an ATM, making a withdrawal from it whenever they want. It's awful. So no matter what point of view I took with the film, people would still criticize it. I was filming events that were still taboo, I had a point of view, and no matter what, I was filming from the point of view of people and a family... Of course it's limited by the filmmaker's vision and attitude. I can only present a part of the atmosphere of the time."
Film techniques The movie includes many Chinese dialects, such as
Southern Min,
Cantonese and
Shanghainese, which make this film pellucid for different groups of people.
Ming-Yeh T. Rawnsley explains that "by representing the political reality of the late 1940s indirectly,
A City of Sadness deals with the past, but is not trapped by the past, and is able to achieve a sense of objectiveness and authenticity." As he communicated through other means (photographs, pen and paper) he is often playing the role of an observer. His inability to speak could mirror Taiwan being silenced by its oppressors. Sound plays an important role in the film as the opening scene is shot in darkness, with the only sound being Emperor Hirohito on the radio broadcast. Throughout the film, the use of Japanese language is cultural, as it represents the experiences of the Taiwanese and their cultural identity. Most of the characters would not be able to understand much Japanese as they would not have lived through 51 years of Japanese rule. This is why the native characters speak Taiwanese with some Japanese words mixed into their speech. Hou Hsiao‑Hsien's film narrative style is extremely rare in the history of film. His style shows a characteristic called self‑restraint.
A City of Sadness is the most obvious representative of his film narrative style. Hou Hsiao‑Hsien often uses the defined frame in his film shooting process. For example, the most typical example in
A City of Sadness is the scene shot in the hospital lobby. The restriction of the camera to a predetermined axis and the geometry of the space, the space is not only divided into a graphic plane, but the size and shape of the screen itself also changes according to the different narratives. This picture‑in‑picture composition emphasizes the graphic quality of the picture. Hou Hsiao‑hsien frequently uses long takes in
A City of Sadness, with an average shot length of around 43 seconds. These extended shots reduce visual interruption and enhance the film’s realism and emotional depth. By allowing scenes to unfold slowly, Hou draws viewers into the characters' world and emphasizes a sense of historical observation. The long takes also reflect the film’s contemplative tone and the silenced experiences of its characters. The film frequently uses silence and visual expression to convey themes of oppression and trauma. Wen‑ching's muteness is not only a character trait but also a symbolic device reflecting the silenced voices of Taiwanese people during the White Terror. Hou Hsiao‑hsien uses non‑verbal cues—such as gestures, facial expressions, and spatial composition—to substitute for spoken dialogue in many emotionally charged scenes. The violent scenes in the incident unfold mainly on a train. Taiwanese protesters resist the Mainlander‑led regime in a blunt way: they question travelers first in Minnan (Hokkien) and then in Taiwanese, and anyone unable to answer is assumed to be an outsider and beaten. Wen‑ching was deaf and dumb, so he could not respond, yet he had normal hearing before he was eight. Relying on his remaining memory, he shouted in Taiwanese, “Me, Taiwanese”, which became his only line in the film and also became a meaningful expression of identity. The identity of Taiwanese can help him escape the danger of the riots, but it also further deepens the contradiction between Taiwanese and outsiders. The editing of the film avoids the conventional montage school techniques and direct camera impact and passion, looking for a unique charm and grand momentum. It adopts different methods of slow single‑scene progress and fast transition connection, so that the freely narrated story has both omissions and jumps, and the speed is staggered and just right. Therefore, the film implies a special sense of desolation, and its historical complex is vividly expressed in a particularly vigorous style. ==Reception and impact==