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Poster for A City of Sadness

A City of Sadness

1989 · 2h 38m · N/A Drama, History
Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien

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Overview

The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror," the Kuomintang government's anti-communist political repression that was wrought on the Taiwanese people from 1947-1987.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
100%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The movie conveys the director's intensely personal struggle at the crossroads of large-scale history and private memory; with understatedly bitter irony, he depicts the birth of a nation at the price of a family's dissolution.

Richard Brody, New Yorker
Fresh

A City of Sadness is a great film, one that will be watched as long as there are people who care about the movies as an art.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune
Fresh

Hou turns in a masterpiece of small gestures and massive resonance; once you surrender to its spell, the obscurities vanish.

Tony Rayns, Time Out
Fresh

It is worth the long wait for the resonance of 'A City of Sadness to emerge.

Caryn James, New York Times
Fresh

Beautiful family saga by the great Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien.

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

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