Director Zhang Yi, who has faded out of the film industry for many years, has passed away, and his related works in the 1980s have once again been remembered by film fans.
In 1982, Zhang Yi, Yang Dechang, Tao Dechen and Ke Yizheng each shot a paragraph of "The Story of Time and Yin", which was regarded as the starting point of "Taiwan's new film". The new Taiwanese film can also be understood as the "new Taiwanese film", which is the new Taiwanese imagination and expression aesthetics. In the 1970s, with the crisis of legitimacy in Taiwan, China Film began a series of military propaganda films, such as "Heroic Martyrs" (1976) and "Plum Blossom" (1976), but the influence of such films declined at the turn of the 1970s and 1980s.
Young directors born after the war began to reflect on Taiwan from their perspective, including the growth of their generation and the differences between urban and rural areas in Taiwan. In addition, there are also works that reflect on the life course and even identity of the previous generation from the perspective of the younger generation. Taiwan's new films strive to reproduce the real social trajectory, and "realism" is therefore a feature of Taiwan's new films. In this context, Zhang Yi's "I Lived My Life Like This" (1985) deserves to be one of the works that revisited the social situation in Taiwan in the 1980s.
Since the early 1980s, the situation of ethnic groups in other provinces (especially veterans) has become the subject of films; in contrast, "I Have Lived My Life Like This" mainly features women from other provinces from the mainland to Taiwan, bringing out the life experience of Taiwan struggling to survive and then taking root. In addition, the film also brings out the transformation of Taiwanese society with the restaurant "Xiafei House" created by the heroine. This work won four major awards at the Golden Horse Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, which shows the recognition it received at that time.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > veteran story emerge</h1>
Films based on ethnic groups from other provinces have appeared as early as the 1960s, such as Li Xing's "Streets and Alleys" in 1963. The film is the protagonist of the provincial bottom, emphasizing that although the environment is difficult, as long as there is ambition, you can get through the difficulties. At the end of the film, it is also emphasized that one day he will "return to his home on the mainland". However, more than 20 years later, the dream of returning home has long been transformed into an impossible dream due to reality. Many of the soldiers who came to Taiwan with the National Government at that time have long since retired due to their age, but what is their situation?
In 1982, Retired veteran Li Shike, wearing a duck-tongue hat and holding a pistol in his hand, robbed the Guting branch of taipei land bank, shocking the society at that time. Born in 1927, Li Shike came to Taiwan with the Kuomintang army at the age of 22, retired from the army due to illness at the age of 32, and drove a taxi to survive. It is not so much that he harbors hatred for society, but rather that he is a long-term homesickness and the accumulation of unsatisfactory life. The writer Li Ao also published an article entitled "Shouting for the Veteran Li Shike" at that time, which mentioned that Li Shike was an abandoned veteran, and that there were "thousands of Li Shike alive" in this society.
After the Lee Shi Ke incident, in 1983, two stories based on ethnic groups from other provinces appeared at the same time: "The Story of Xiao Bi", a work of Taiwan's new film genealogy, and "Hitchhiking" produced by Hong Kong's New Arts City. "The Story of Xiao Bi", directed by Chen Kunhou, is based on the novel of the same name by writer Zhu Tiantian. Although the protagonist is Xiao Bi, the film also brings out the background of his father "Da Bi" - with the Arrival of the National Government in Taiwan, there was a marriage in the mainland, but he was floating in Taiwan, and later married a wife who was once a restaurant girl and was still unmarried and pregnant with Xiao Bi. DaBi and Xiaobi are not related by blood, but due to the yin and yang differences between the times and social factors, they have become fathers and sons living together.
Although "Hitchhiking" is produced by Hong Kong New Art City, almost all of it is filmed by the Taiwanese team. Director Yu Jieping is set against the background of the illegal buildings in the predecessor of Taipei's Daan Forest, and the veteran of the province played by Sun Yue is the bottom of the society who lives there to pick up the rags and make a living, and he also adopts the abandoned baby all the way to raise it, and this abandoned baby will later become a well-known singer. In the movie, Sun Yue is dumb, symbolizing that veterans cannot make a sound in this society. In 1984, Li Youning's "The Second Spring of Lao Mo", also starring Sun Yue, is a story about the protagonist who once had a marriage in the mainland and married an aboriginal person due to changes in the times.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > change in veteran stories</h1>
The 1980s were a delicate time and space point between the two sides of the strait. In the 1980s, when the problem of Taiwan's veterans began to emerge, the line of reform and opening up was established at the end of 1978, and the door of the country that had been sealed for 30 years gradually opened. Subsequently, relatives on both sides of the strait who separated from the Kuomintang-Communist War began to contact each other, and some used Hong Kong as an intermediary to contact each other or even meet.
The original story of the provincial people began to have some new changes, in 1985 Wang Tong directed the content of "Yangchun Father" as the name indicates, the father alone followed the National Government to Taiwan, and then married to Taiwanese women, worthy of the name of Yangchun Father. The film focuses on the conflict between two generations, after the family in Taiwan has a child, the child also grows up slowly, and the father and son have conflicts in many values during their youth. It wasn't until one day that the father learned that his mother had died in the Chinese mainland, and he cried loudly, and the son realized how unaware he was of his father's past.
Yu Jianping's 1988 "Cross-Straits" is an extension of the story of veterans, the theme is in Chinese mainland had been married to veterans from other provinces, due to the factors of the times in Taiwan also married and had children, with the opening of many people to Hong Kong as an intermediary to meet, veterans from other provinces once again by Sun Yue, after several contact arrangements, the whole family went to Hong Kong to meet with wives and daughters from Chinese mainland. The Taiwanese wife played by Jiang Xia in the movie vividly plays the uncertainty that her husband may have to return to Chinese mainland and never come back.
Wang Tong's 1989 "Banana Paradise" door latch and Li Desheng joined the army under the guise of Zuo Fugui and Liu Jinyuan, and then came to Taiwan with the army. Unexpectedly, the fate of the two twists and turns, Liu Jinyuan was suspected of being a co-spy, facing ruthless interrogation; The door latch changed his name to survive, and his life gradually stabilized when he was admitted to public office under the name of Li Qilin. Years later, people began to search for the whereabouts of their long-lost relatives and friends, and the door latch also received a call from Li Qilin's father who died, and although he was not a real father, the door latch also cried loudly. This scene should be the most profound of the themes of the exile of the provincial ethnic groups in the 1980s.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > "Xiafei Home" created by toiling women</h1>
Zhang Yi's "I Lived My Life Like This" is based on Xiao Sa's novel "Xiafei House", and the male and female protagonists are Li Liqun and Yang Huishan. It is worth mentioning that many people may focus on the emotional relationship between the director, the original writer and the actress, in fact, the original adaptation, especially since the establishment of the Lianhe Bao Novel Award in 1976, the award-winning works have been remade as filmmakers, and there were not a few in the 1980s.
In addition to Xiao Sa's "Xia Fei House" in 1980, Li Ang's "Killing Husband" in 1983 was adapted into a film of the same name by Director Zeng Zhuangxiang in 1985, Huang Fan's "Taste of Mercy" in 1984 was adapted into a film of the same name by director Cai Yangming in 1985, Wu Jinfa's "Spring and Autumn Tea Room" in 1987 and Wang Xiangqi's "Home without Egg Head" were also remade as films of the same name in 1988 and 1989 by Xu Jinliang and director Chen Kunhou respectively.
"I Have Lived My Life Like This" is a story of the life experience of women from other provinces in Taiwan, from Chinese mainland to Taiwan, Gui mei, who once had a fiancé in her hometown, however, under the change of the times, the two came to Taiwan alone to separate the two sides of the strait. Under the introduction of friends, Guimei married Hou Yongnian, who had three sons, unexpectedly, Hou Yongnian, who worked in a hotel, was addicted to gambling, and his life could not be stable, plus he gave birth to two children, and his life was unsustainable. Gui Mei took her two children to Japan to help the domestic helpers to support the family, and after a few years, she was finally able to open the "Xia fei home" restaurant in the alley of Ren'ai Road in Taipei.
Xiafei House is named because Guimei grew up in the countryside of Chinese mainland, and heard that there are relatives living in Xiafei Road in Shanghai, and the impression of bustling Shanghai is concentrated on the word "Xiafei". The restaurant's signature dishes are beef risotto, assorted fried rice, and chicken curry. One of the differences between the film version and the novel version is that in the novel, Gui mei is a domestic worker in the United States, and this process also allows her to learn the practice of chocolate pie and apple pie, which has become the signature of the small shop. Whether it is japan in the movie or the United States in the novel, it is to go to a country more advanced than Taiwan to make money by labor, which is actually a microcosm of Taiwan's labor-intensive and export-processing economy in the 1960s and 1970s.
However, a stable life is also the beginning of the next twists and turns. Gui Mei and her husband Hou Yongnian are a group of contrasts, her husband is addicted to gambling, loves face, full of machismo, he is the family's time bomb, after the family is stable, the gambling is slightly reduced but there is an affair; Gui Mei is a traditional and tenacious woman, always working hard for the big and small things in the family. The novel was published in 1981, and the film released four years later added another set of fates to the social topic of cross-strait family visits, and the fiancé who remained in the Chinese mainland also had another marriage and children, and the two sides learned about each other's recent situation through correspondence.
In the end of the movie, Gui Mei, who has a lifelong twist and turn, suffers from cancer, and where does Xia Fei's home go. Many sons and daughters have their own opinions, and Zhengfang, who was going to study abroad, bravely jumped out when no one was willing to take over. This film is a wonderful interpretation, which is a decision made by Zhengfang after careful observation of her mother's life, not only the love of mother and daughter, but also a mutual understanding of the same women.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > metaphor for food</h1>
"I Have Lived My Life Like This" is a narrative dominated by women from other provinces, and in the context of film and society, it still has a place in the forest of classics. Even though we see many provincial women in Wang Tong's Banana Paradise (1989) or Yang Dechang's Juvenile Murders on Muling Street (1991), we still can't see their life course in the images.
In addition, if "I Lived My Life Like This" recreates the story of a woman and a family from other provinces, Wan Ren's "Rapeseed" directed by Wan Ren in 1984 is just enough to contrast, which is the family story of a couple in Taiwan Province. The title of the film "Rapeseed" is taken from the Taiwanese proverb "Check the life of a certain life of rapeseed", that is, the course of a woman's life will drift with the marriage and grow up wherever it goes. In fact, this also echoes Guimi's exile and separation process in "I Have Lived My Life Like This".
When it comes to director WanRen's work, 1983's "Taste of apples" can also be compared with "I Have Lived My Life Like This": it also uses food as a symbol to bring out a modern expression with different aspects. In "The Taste of the Apple", the apple is the symbol of the United States, and the film brings out the Taiwanese people's imagination of the "paradise" of the United States through a car accident between the low-level people of Taiwan and the US military officers stationed in Taiwan, which is naturally an ironic way to reflect on the modernization process of Taiwan's "America first" after the war. "I've Lived My Life Like This" transforms Chinese restaurants such as the original risotto of Xiafei House into Western food, symbolizing the transformation of Taipei Metropolis. Overall, Xia fei house from Chinese food to Western food, from full to tasteful, symbolizes the transformation of Taiwanese society.
"I've Lived My Life Like This" tells the story of displacement under the big times, and the taste of Xiafei's house is plain and solid. The director dies, but the work is left forever, allowing us to revisit the era marks of the 1980s. In particular, society is the dwelling place of language, and society has changed, some languages have disappeared, and the classification of "provincial people" has slowly disappeared. "I Lived My Life Like This" is not only one of the classic films, but also an imprint on the social history of Taiwan.