Directed by
Hsiao-hsien Hou
Writing credits
T'ien-wen Chu
Nien-Jen Wu
The film depicts the Lin family's experiences during the White Terror. The eldest brother Wen-Heung (Sung Young Chen) is murdered by a Shanghai mafia boss, the middle brother Wen-Leung (Jack Kao) suffers a traumatic brain injury in a KMT jailhouse, and the youngest brother Wen-Ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), who is both deaf and mute, hopes to flee to the mountains with his friend to fight in the anti-KMT resistance movement. By the end of the film even the photographer Wen-Ching has been arrested by the authorities, leaving only his wife to tell the story of the family's destruction.
Wen-Ching's deafness began as an expedient to disguise Tony Leung's inability to speak Taiwanese (or Japanese - the language taught in Taiwan's schools during the 51 year occupation), but wound up being an effective means to demonstrate the brutal insensitivity of Chen Yi's ROC administration.
Wen-Ching's deafness began as an expedient to disguise Tony Leung's inability to speak Taiwanese (or Japanese - the language taught in Taiwan's schools during the 51 year occupation), but wound up being an effective means to demonstrate the brutal insensitivity of Chen Yi's ROC administration.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096908/
