Taiwan has, during the 80s and 90s, become more and more
visible on the international film scene. There are three key directors
behind the Tai-wanese "new wave", Edward Yang whose film A Brighter Summer
Day (1991) was shown at Swedish cinemas, Ang Lee, whose film Eat Drink Man
Woman is currently being shown here in Sweden, and Hou Hsiao-hsien, the
director of Good Men, Good Women. Whilst Edward Yang's works are often
grandiose epics and Ang Lee's witty films about people's attempts to live
together, Hsiao-hsien makes tranquil, reflective and often subtly
constructed films with an open political message. Good men, Good Women is
a film on three narrative levels. First we meet Liang, a young actress,
who receives parts of a stolen diary faxed to her anonymously. After which
we find ourselves at the end of the 80s when Liang was having an affair
with the gangster Ah-wei. During this time she lived a self destructive
life as an addict working in a bar in Taipei. The third story is about
Chiang and Chung two young Taiwanese, and their fate during and after the
Second World War. They leave a Taiwan under Japanese occupation and move
to China to fight against the Japanese army of occupation. This is the
film story that the actress Liang is rehearsing and where she plays
Chiang. The two film characters move back to Taiwan after the war and form
a left-wing opposition group against Chiang-Kai Seks ruling kuomintang
party. Chiang and Chung are arrested. Chiang is eventually released and
Chung executed in the general wave of anti-communism that broke out in the
aftermath of the Korean war. These three stories become more and more
intertwined. Liang remembers her destructive life together with Ah-wei and
the abrupt end when he is shot in a gangster dispute. Her memories lead
her to empathise strongly with her film character's suffering. Good Men,
Good Women is mysteriously and ingeniously constructed. The three stories
are presented in such a way that the viewer only gradually understands the
connection, and the final clues are not revealed until the voice-over at
the end of the film. The film is a tribute to the opposition of the 40s
and 50s which dared to defy the tough regime. It is also a sad reflection
of the human waste that this tainted period in Taiwanese history resulted
in, as the opposition consisted mostly of the young intelligentsia. As a
result the film is also dedicated to both the real Chiang and Chung and
the countless victims of the political terror of the 50s.
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