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A City Of Sadness
''A City of Sadness'' () is a 1989 Taiwanese historical drama directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. It tells the story of a family embroiled in the " White Terror" that was wrought on the Taiwanese people by the Kuomintang government (KMT) after their arrival from mainland China in the late 1940s, during which thousands of Taiwanese and recent emigres from the Mainland were rounded up, shot, and/or sent to prison. The film was the first to deal openly with the KMT's authoritarian misdeeds after its 1945 takeover of Taiwan, which had been relinquished following Japan's defeat in World War II, and the first to depict the February 28 Incident of 1947, in which thousands of people were massacred by the KMT. ''A City of Sadness'' was the first (of three) Taiwanese films to win the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, and is often considered Hou's masterpiece. The film was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 62nd Academy Awards, but was not acc ...
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Hou Hsiao-hsien
Hou Hsiao-hsien ( zh, t=侯孝賢, poj=Hâu Hàu-hiân; born 8 April 1947) is a retired Mainland Chinese-born Taiwanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a leading figure in world cinema and in Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement. He won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1989 for his film '' A City of Sadness'' (1989), and the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2015 for '' The Assassin'' (2015). Other highly regarded works of his include '' The Puppetmaster'' (1993) and ''Flowers of Shanghai'' (1998). Hou was voted "Director of the Decade" for the 1990s in a poll of American and international critics by ''The Village Voice'' and ''Film Comment''. In a 1998 New York Film Festival worldwide critics' poll, Hou was named "one of the three directors most crucial to the future of cinema." ''A City of Sadness'' ranked 117th in the British Film Institute's 2012 ''Sight & Sound'' critics' poll of the greatest films ever made. In 2017, Met ...
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White Terror (Taiwan)
The White Terror ( zh, t=, poj=Pe̍h-sek Khióng-pò͘, p=Báisè Kǒngbù) was the political repression of Taiwanese civilians and political dissenters under the government ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT). The period of White Terror is generally considered to have begun when martial law was declared in Taiwan on 19 May 1949, which was enabled by the 1948 Temporary Provisions against the Communist Rebellion, and ended on 21 September 1992 with the repeal of Article 100 of the Criminal Code, allowing for the prosecution of "anti-state" activities. The Temporary Provisions had been repealed a year earlier on 22 April 1991. Martial law had been lifted on 15 July 1987. Two years after the 28 February incident, the KMT retreated from mainland China to Taiwan during the closing stages of the Chinese Civil War in 1949. Wanting to consolidate its rule on its remaining territories, the KMT imposed harsh political suppression measures, which included enacting martial law, executing su ...
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Taipei
, nickname = The City of Azaleas , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Taiwan#Asia#Pacific Ocean#Earth , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Taiwan , established_title = Settled , established_date = 1709 , established_title1 = Renamed Taihoku , established_date1 = 17 April 1895 , established_title2 = Provincial city (Taiwan), Provincial city status , established_date2 = 25 October 1945 , established_title3 = Retreat of the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan, Provisional national capital , established_date3 = 7 December 1949 , established_title4 = Reconstituted as a Yuan-controlled municipality , established_date4 = 1 July 1967 , capital_type = City seat , capital = Xinyi District, Taipei, Xinyi District , largest_settlement ...
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Good Men, Good Women
''Good Men, Good Women'' () is a 1995 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, starring Annie Yi, Lim Giong, and Jack Kao. It is the last installment in the trilogy that began with ''A City of Sadness'' (1989) and continued with '' The Puppetmaster'' (1993). Like its predecessors, it deals with the complicated issues of Taiwanese history and national identity. Plot The film depicts the real-life story of Chiang Bi-yu (Annie Yi). In the 1940s, she and her newlywed husband, Chung Hao-tung (Lim Giong), head to mainland China to join the anti-Japanese resistance. During the war, she is forced to give her baby up for adoption. After the war they return to Taiwan, as Chung is to distribute a communist paper called ''The Enlightenment''. However, as the Korean War deepens, Chiang Kai-shek's Kuomintang government intensifies the White Terror and Chung is executed. The film consists of three intermingling storylines and scattered throughout the film are interludes of an actress (a ...
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The Puppetmaster (film)
''The Puppetmaster'' is a 1993 Taiwanese film directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien. Based on the memoirs of Li Tian-lu, Taiwan's most celebrated puppeteer, this story covers the years from Li's birth in 1909 to the end of Japan's fifty-year occupation of Taiwan in 1945. Plot The film tells the story of Li Tian-lu (1910-1998), who becomes a master puppeteer but is faced with demands to turn his skills to propaganda during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan in World War II. Scenes from his childhood and early adulthood are intercut with puppet performances and newly-filmed interviews of Li recounting his life as he's swept up in Taiwan's tumultuous history. The film is the second in Hou's trilogy of historical films about Taiwan in the 20th century. '' A City of Sadness'' (1989) covered the four years between the end of World War II and the retreat of the Kuomintang to Taiwan in 1949, when Taipei was declared the “temporary” capital of the Republic of China. '' Good Men, Good Women'' ...
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62nd Academy Awards
The 62nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 1989 and took place on March 26, 1990, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 6:00 p.m. PST / 9:00 p.m. EST. During the ceremony, AMPAS presented Academy Awards (commonly referred to as Oscars) in 23 categories. The ceremony, televised in the United States by ABC, was produced by Gil Cates and directed by Jeff Margolis. Actor Billy Crystal hosted the show for the first time. Three weeks earlier, in a ceremony held at The Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, California on March 3, the Academy Awards for Technical Achievement were presented by hosts Richard Dysart and Diane Ladd. '' Driving Miss Daisy'' won four awards, including Best Picture. Other winners included '' Glory'' with three awards, '' Born on the Fourth of July'', '' The Little Mermaid'', and '' My Left Foot'' with two, and '' The Abyss'', '' Balan ...
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Academy Award For Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the United States with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.80th Academy Awards – Special Rules for the Best Foreign Language Film Award
. . Retrieved November 2, 2007.
When the first Academy Awards ceremony was held on May 16, 1929, to honor ...
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Golden Lion
The Golden Lion () is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is regarded as one of the film industry's most prestigious and distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion award was introduced, an honorary prize for people who have made an important contribution to cinema. The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark (which was one of the best known symbols of the ancient Republic of Venice). In 1954, the prize was permanently named the Golden Lion. History The first Golden Lion was awarded in 1949. Previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia (Grand International Prize of Venice), awarded in 1947 and 1948. No Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. According to the Biennale's official website, the hiatus was a result of the 1968 Lion being given to the radically experimental '' Die Artisten in der Zirkuskuppel: Ratlos' ...
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February 28 Incident
The February 28 incident (also called the February 28 massacre, the 228 incident, or the 228 massacre) was an anti-government uprising in Taiwan in 1947 that was violently suppressed by the Kuomintang–led nationalist government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China (ROC). Directed by Taiwan Province, provincial governor Chen Yi (Kuomintang), Chen Yi and president Chiang Kai-shek, thousands of civilians were killed beginning on February 28. The incident is considered to be one of the most important events in Taiwan's modern history and was a critical impetus for the Taiwan independence movement, Taiwan independence movement. In 1945, following the surrender of Japan at the End of World War II in Asia, end of World War II, the Allies of World War II, Allies handed administrative control of Taiwan over to China, thus ending 50 years of Taiwan under Japanese rule, Japanese colonial rule. Local residents became resentful of what they saw as high-handed and ...
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World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the world's countries participated, with many nations mobilising all resources in pursuit of total war. Tanks in World War II, Tanks and Air warfare of World War II, aircraft played major roles, enabling the strategic bombing of cities and delivery of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, first and only nuclear weapons ever used in war. World War II is the List of wars by death toll, deadliest conflict in history, causing World War II casualties, the death of 70 to 85 million people, more than half of whom were civilians. Millions died in genocides, including the Holocaust, and by massacres, starvation, and disease. After the Allied victory, Allied-occupied Germany, Germany, Allied-occupied Austria, Austria, Occupation of Japan, Japan, a ...
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Japan
Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea in the south. The Japanese archipelago consists of four major islands—Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu—and List of islands of Japan, thousands of smaller islands, covering . Japan has a population of over 123 million as of 2025, making it the List of countries and dependencies by population, eleventh-most populous country. The capital of Japan and List of cities in Japan, its largest city is Tokyo; the Greater Tokyo Area is the List of largest cities, largest metropolitan area in the world, with more than 37 million inhabitants as of 2024. Japan is divided into 47 Prefectures of Japan, administrative prefectures and List of regions of Japan, eight traditional regions. About three-quarters of Geography of Japan, the countr ...
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Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the China, People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the northeast, and the Philippines to the south. It has an area of , with mountain ranges dominating the eastern two-thirds and plains in the western third, where its Urbanization by country, highly urbanized population is concentrated. The combined Free area of the Republic of China, territories under ROC control consist of list of islands of Taiwan, 168 islands in total covering . The Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, largest metropolitan area is formed by Taipei (the capital), New Taipei City, and Keelung. With around 23.9 million inhabitants, Taiwan is among the List of countries and dependencies by population density, most densely populated countries. Tai ...
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