Taipei Story

{100%} 💯

                               #467TH Film Of 2020

My first experience with an Edward Yang work was Yi Yi, which was a film entirely different to anything I’d seen prior and one that moved me a great deal and remains one of my all time favorites. Yang’s most acclaimed film A Brighter Summer Day has long been my most anticipated viewing. Sometime ago I purchased the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of Yi Yi in preparation for a rewatch and that never happened. On my birthday, 3 August, which is only 2 days prior to my viewing of this film, I recieved as a gift from my mother the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of A Brighter Summer Day and so I decided to begin a Yang marathon in which I’d also rewatch Yi Yi. I sadly was unable to track down Yang’s first feature That Day, On the Beach so I started with this, the marathon has long since been completed, with my review delay that hasn’t been evident though.

Taipei Story is a one of a kind masterpiece and is a film that blew me away, and then some. Yang’s artistic vision is uncompromising here as he explores the changing landscape of Taiwan and more specially its capital Taipei. A blend of tradition and Confucian ideals pitted against the rapidly modernizing world. It wouldn’t be doing Yang justice to simply state that the two protagonists are stand ins for or symbolize these two opposing ideals, this is an artistic achievement much grander than that simple description seems to suggest.

Also that Footloose scene was great...

Spoilers ahead...

On its surface we can engage with the story of a troubled relationship between Chin and Lung. But as we look deeper, Yang’s true intentions become unmasked. Lung is a character who’s stuck in the past, he reminisces on his glory days as a little league baseball players. His old ways and Confucian ideals become increasingly prevalent as the film progresses. Fabrics and textiles, what a difference between them. The old and tradition vs the new and corporate. The strength to which Lung clings to these ideals is demonstrated in the scene where he meets Chin’s friends at a bar and one of them asks about his work. His response is that he works with fabrics, yet this friend continuously claims that he works in textiles. The idea is clear here, fabrics being the older traditional way and textiles being the new company manufactured way...

Chin is a working woman, and ambitious at that, she hopes for a life in the U.S and tries to get Lung to get a job with his brother (or step brother I can’t recall) in California so they can move there and hopefully create a better life for themselves. Her job situation when the film begins is rather unstable with her initial “boss” leaving for another path, it seems her options are to remain, leave for the U.S or follow her ex-boss. Early on in the film she discovers that Lung has lied to her about coming straight home from the US to Taipei, he’s stopped in Japan along the way and visited an ex of his. This discovery is displayed to us in the most perfect manner. Lung’s inability to move on from past experiences is juxtaposed with Chin’s more so go with the flow nature. Her sunglasses are undoubtedly one of the most fascinating aspects to her character, she’s almost always wearing these dark shades masking away the truth that lies within.

The way these two interact with the rest of the world and other characters in general allows Yang to explore them further and in more depth. I touched upon a few examples briefly, but now for a bit more depth... Chin has a group of friends which she spends time with, none are particularly best friends but she’s relatively sociable and interacts well with them. She’s also an older sister and her responsible nature comes across during her interactions with her younger sister who’s a little more reckless. Lung’s friends are all old friends, he’s in well with this old baseball coach, and of course his best friend the taxi driver. This is a friend whom he’s been very close with since his “glory days” and is one whom he cares for very much, not a dissimilar relationship to Chin’s with her younger sister. His friend isn’t well off and Lung often lends him money, the friend’s wife is a gambling addict and neglects their child to play cards regularly, Lung doesn’t approve of this and tries to prevent this from happening throughout the film, his efforts eventually to the woman’s suicide. When Lung encounters Chin’s modern-centric friends they clash violently, it’s no place for him. 

One of the final discussions between the couple is where Lung says the U.S isn’t a cure-all nor is marriage. This final interaction prior to the tragic ending is one of the most powerful. Edward Yang doesn’t pass judgement upon these characters, this film is merely a hypothesis and exploration of ideas. We as an audience empathize with both characters in the film, there is no villain except the harsh conflict of ideals. Lung’s more rigid traditionalism doesn’t appear absurd as possibly a list of Confucian ideals may today. 

Lung: He (step brother) killed someone once. A black person. Later the police came and he was acquitted. He said that in the States, if you see a suspicious person in your yard, and if you can shoot them dead, drag them into your house and plant an unregistered gun on them. They call it self-defense. You're not guilty.

The modern ways of America are shown to be absurd to us here. However in its totality Yang demonstrates to us the tragic faults of Lung’s rigid Confucianism and stuck in the past mindset. In the finale the young man who’s attracted to Chin seems to chase done Lung and they come into conflict and this interaction proves fatal for Lung as the young supplant the old, modernity kills tradition. But this victory isn’t all well for Chin either, in fact it’s no victory for no one. The final tragedy is that this world kills all, there is no cure-all.

Chin asked by her boss if she’ll move to America, the response, ambiguous. But as the music begins to come into play and the credits edge around the corner, Chin adopts her sunglasses once more and the fog clears, there is no cure all.

Best Films of the 80’s || Edward Yang || Chinese, Taiwanese & Hong Kong Cinema

🔙 Hana-bi
🔜 Rashomon ♻️