Nostalgia and Hou Hsiao-hsien''s Urban Film Aesthetics: Dust in the Wind, Goodbye South, Goodbye, and Millennium Mambo

• Main Authors: Chih-yun Tseng, 曾芷筠
• Other Authors: Wenchi Lin
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/92201743540395979753

碩士 === 國立中央大學 === 英美語文學研究所 === 99 === Hou Hsiao-hsien’s urban films about Taipei, such as Daughter of the Nile (1987), Good Men Good Women (1994), Millennium Mambo (2000), and the last installment of Three Times (2006), have not been received well by his critics and fans. Unlike earlier films of the 80s, which provide a strong sense of nostalgia of the Taiwan in the 60s and 70s, these urban films seem rather empty once the camera focus shifts to the city. This phenomenon calls for a reconsideration on the issue of nostalgia in Hou’s films. Nostalgia is one of the most renowned aesthetic features of Hou’s films in the 80s. His unique semi-autobiographical themes and his concerns for Taiwan’s history shed a strong sense of nostalgia in the filmic language. Is it really the case that Hou’s later urban films are no longer nostalgic? This thesis intends to probe into Hou’s film language to explicate how Hou successfully constructs the effect of nostalgia in his films, especially Dust in the Wind (1986), Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), and Millennium Mambo (2000). I argue that the nostalgia in Hou’s films should not be defined by a naïve sense of realism focusing on real locations and non-professional actors/actresses. Neither should the discussions be limited to the context of city/country binary opposition. It is rather an effect constructed by the depiction of ideal intimacy in human relationships as well harmony between human beings and nature. This thesis points out that Hou’s later urban films, especially Goodbye South, Goodbye and Millennium Mambo, though seemingly very different in terms of subject matter and film style, are still nostalgic films. The thesis hopes to make it clear that it is not that Hou’s films realistically depict Taiwan’s past which bring out the audience’s nostalgia. It is rather that Hou constructs nostalgic effect in through his film aesthetics. Chapter one of this thesis examines Hou’s quintessential film Dust in the Wind to contend that the nostalgic effect is manifested through the presentation/preservation of intimacy in interpersonal relationship as well as harmony between human beings and nature. ii In this chapter, the notion of what I call nostalgic realism is proposed and discussed. The chapter also demonstrates that nostalgic effect does not lie in the film’s depiction of country only; it can be located in that of the city too. Chapter two turns to Goodbye South, Goodbye. The presentation in the film reflects that the content of nostalgic effect no longer exist either in the country and the city. By numerous allusions to Dust in the Wind, the film conveys the sense of nostalgia indirectly. Through the character of Jack, the film depicts nostalgia in despair. Chapter three focuses on Millennium Mambo, which depicts the rootless being of the youth and the drifting urban space in Taipei. Hou’s new urban aesthetics will be discussed to show how the cinematography, the casting of a female star Shu Qi, and the use of music reinforce the characters’ negative urban experience. The two sequences of Yubari will be pointed out as the key elements of the film’s nostalgic effect, which is not confined by national boundaries. Key