Taipei Story

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1 hr. 50 min.

Drama

List

100%

6 Reviews

Tomatometer

88%

100+ Ratings

Audience Score

A former national Little League team player finds solace by hanging out with hedonistic youths.

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Audience Member

An eye-catching, sedating tale of unwillingness. The movie's pace may seem alternating, with very slow sections followed by turns of events which, at the end of the day, does not leave concrete space for the viewer to give up throughout the story. The characters have been worked up quite ok, and whose backgrounds may help the viewer find the root for the characters' fitting in the scenarios, specially in the second part (as Chin and her adventures with her sister's teenager-friends whose carefree existence she seems to admire). The fantastic camerawork and use of lights in a bright Taipei at night makes the perception of the movie visually impacting and quite catchy. Ultimately, the development of the characters' inner fragility, making them crumble into an invisible limbo, frames their hopelessness to silently bear the consequences of their own (in)decision in a calmly realistic and visually appealing piece of work.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

Full Review

william d

Taipei is just a backdrop for this slow-moving tale of people trying to survive difficult economic circumstances. The fact that those circumstances are of their own making does not make it any more interesting. Neither does throwing in a few romantic entanglements.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

nick s

Taipei Story with a reference to Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story in the title translated in English credited as one of the first films of Taiwanese New Wave cinema. The original title is literally translated as "green plumbs and a bamboo horse" and used as idiom related to the metaphor of game when children ride sticks pretending this is a horse. This title is a better fit for the film, as the connection between Ozu's film and Taipei Story is nothing but irony. Though, the final film of Yang Yi Yi resembles the family dramas Ozu did. In Taipei Story, Yang casts another prominent Taiwanese New Wave cinema director Hou Hsiao-Hsien as a former baseball player Lung and Yang's future wife Tsai Chin as Chin. Chin used to be quite a successful corporate office worker before she lost her last job. She always stays independently not relying upon her father who is the lazy troubled businessman. Taipei Story shows Chin's weakness in an affair with Lung who is seeking himself. Lung lives in the past dealing with the old memories from times when he was a player and had another affair with a Japanese woman. He is not able to get over the middle age crisis and keeps making irrelevant decisions in business and private life. Lung helps his friends and troubled Chin's father lending him money to pay back to loan sharks, yet he doesn't do much for his own life or happiness of his girlfriend. Lung and Chin frequently think and talk about a possible move to the United States which might let them start a new life. They really want it, but remain unable to make a step towards it due to Lang inability to look into the future and act. After some time, Lung starts seeking excuses saying neither any move nor marriage will solve their problems and change anything. Lung's life becomes more and more aimless, while Chin loses the hopes for living a better life and professional advance. The situation puts a test on the characters' relationships they cannot pass. The disaster and tragedy in their story become inevitable. The most impressive aspect of the story is its visual style. The usage of unfurnished apartments, offices and alienated urban landscapes is a great illustration of emptiness embedding the protagonists. In his second feature, Edward Yang also appears to be a solid visual master showing great work with lights. The clarity of visual style, emotionally charged close-up and stylish looks and cuts are really impressive. The film might be not so moving, but the story is brilliant in its poignancy and bleakness. Casting other famous directors from Taiwan in his films becomes a common thing for Yang with Taipei Story. Apart from Hou who produced a great performance, in Taipei Stroy, we also see Wu Nien-jen who would later appear in Yang's Mahjong and magnum opus Yi Yi.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Every character's input serves to feed the past that Chin and Lung cannot let go of, inspiring a void with one veiled atrocity at a time.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

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Audience Member

Filled with stunning compositions loaded with symbolism and meaning, this film is much richer than what it appears on the surface. Performances are okay (Tsai Chin is surprisingly good), but it's really the shots, editing, and visual yet elliptical storytelling that do the heavy lifting.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/10/23

Full Review

Audience Member

20s Taiwanese want to go back to 1985 after watching...

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/24/23

Full Review

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Edward Yang

Director

Chin Tsai

Chin

Hsiao-hsien Hou

Lung

I-Chen Ko

Actor

Su-Yun Ko

Gwan

Hsiu-Ling Lin

A-Ling

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Glenn Kenny

New York Times

Ultimately, "Taipei Story" is bleak yet exhilarating.

Mar 16, 2017

Full Review

Ignatiy Vishnevetsky

AV Club

It may not be the complete masterpiece that it has sometimes been hailed as-only a terrifically accomplished and affecting film that is one of many possible entry points into the work of a great filmmaker.

Rated: B+

Mar 14, 2017

Full Review

Melissa Anderson

Village Voice

Yang's film centers on the slow disintegration of a relationship, an erosion that mirrors the abrading effects of both tradition and modernization.

Mar 14, 2017

Full Review

Nicholas Bell

IONCINEMA.com

A mournful odyssey of one couple's promising future slowly eroded in the changing landscape of China's consumer culture.

Rated: 4/5

Sep 9, 2020

Full Review

Daniel Eagan

Film Journal International

What resonates most from the movie is [Edward] Yang's empathy for his doomed characters.

Mar 17, 2017

Full Review

Vikram Murthi

Movie Mezzanine

There's a lilting sense of dread, rhythmic but never fully musical, that permeates Taipei Story and infects the people and objects that populate the frame.

Oct 14, 2016

Full Review

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Synopsis

A former national Little League team player finds solace by hanging out with hedonistic youths.

Director: Edward Yang
Screenwriter: T'ien-wen Chu, Hsiao-hsien Hou, Edward Yang
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Chinese