Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Visible and the Invisible: Edward Yang’s Taipei Trilogy

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Taiwan Cinema, Memory, and Modernity

  • 823 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter focuses on Edward Yang’s Taipei Trilogy: A Confucian Confusion (1994), Mahjong (1996), and A One and a Two (2000) to investigate how Yang makes parody of melodrama with limited point of view, frame-within-the-frame, off-screen voice, dual sound, and image track and spatial layout to manipulate the audience’s gaze between visibility and invisibility, calling into mind that urban people in hustle and bustle only see half of the truth while ignoring what comes from behind.Yang utilizes Taipei’s conspicuous landmarks and the overlapping imagery of human figures and city space to suggest their intertwined relationship as both are part of the city’s vital exchange system. Yang also represents how technologies in a postmodern world interweave the virtual and the actual, shaping the protagonists’ perception and intervening their everyday lives.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    For Edward Yang’s films and award records, see Appendix C.

  2. 2.

    Beginning in the 1970s, the accelerated globalization has changed Taipei’s landscape and skylines. In 1974, the government widened Zhongxiao East and West Roads; in 1975, it lifted the restrictions on high-rise buildings, opening Dunhua, Renai and Jianguo Roads to be the commercial zone of high-rise buildings. Moreover, Taiwan’s capitalists accumulated more and more capitals since the economic growth in the 1960s and hence boosted the constructions of office buildings and commercial headquarters, followed by the mushrooming of foreign companies and brand-name chain stores. Up to 1997, there were a total of 1214 units of 16-story or higher buildings in Taipei (Yue-ching Hung 2002: 129).

  3. 3.

    Shigehiko Hasumi is impressed with Edward Yang’s painstaking and fastidious attitude towards the sound effect of his film. He notices that Yang, shooting the novelist’s suicide scene on the overpass, sent at least four sound recordists to record the roaring of heavy traffic around the overpass in order to engage the spectators in the surround sound effect. See Hasumi (蓮實重彥), “The Absence of Music; Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion and Others” 68.

  4. 4.

    Frederick Jameson suggests approaching the third-world literature and films through the lens of national allegory , which politicizes the text by relating the protagonists and their stories to the sociopolitical context of the work (Jameson 320). Furthermore, he interrelates the asymmetrical power relation between the West and the third world to that between male and female in the lens of intricate and ambivalent national allegory (243).

Works Cited

English

  • Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities. London: Verso, 1991. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, John. Edward Yang. University of Illinois Press, 2005. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan, Campbell. “Take Two”. The Guardian. 3 April 2001.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, Anthony. The Consequences of Modernity. Cambridge, UK: Polity, 1990. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, David. “Time-Space Compression and the Postmodern Condition.” The Condition of Postmodernity: An Inquiry into the Origins of Cultural Change. Cambridge, UK: Blackwell, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jameson, Fredric. “Third-World Literature in the Era of Multinational Capitalism.” The Jameson Reader. Eds. Michael Hardt and Kathi Weeks. Oxford: Blackwell, 2000. 315–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nowell‐Smith, Geoffrey. “Cities: Real and Imagined.” Cinema and the City: Film and Urban Societies in a Global Context (2001): 99–108. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tseng, Chia-chieh. Cultures of Glass in the Late Nineteenth-Century European Novel and Contemporary Sinophone Film. Dissertation, Comparative Literature Department, Rutgers University, 2013.

    Google Scholar 

Chinese

  • Chang, Ivy I-chu (張靄珠). “Huǎngyán Shílù: Yáng Déchāng Kǒngbùfènzǐ de Xìng, Huǎngyán, Bàolì” (謊言實錄:楊德昌《恐怖份子》的性、謊言、暴力 The Falsifying Force of the “Forgers”: Sex, Lies, and Violence in Edward Yang’s Terrorizers). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 33.3 (2004.8): 15–36. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Pei-kai (鄭培凱). “Zhōngguó Diànyǐng Shíkōngzuòbiāo de Zhuǎnyí: Cóng Shànghǎi Dào Táiběi” (中國電影時空座標的轉移:從上海到台北 The Temporal and Spatial Shifts in Chinese Cinema: From Shanghai to Taipei). 1950–1990 Xúnzhǎo Diànyǐng Zhōng de Táiběi (1950–1990 尋找電影中的台北 1950–1990 In Search of Taipei at Films). Taipe: Wànxiàng Túshū (萬象圖書), 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng, Ryan Ping-hung (鄭秉泓). Táiwān Diànyǐng Ài yǔ Sǐ (台灣電影愛與死 The Love and Death of Taiwan Cinema). Taipei: Bookman, 2010. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hasumi, Shigehiko (蓮實重彥). Te-yen Liu (劉德仁) Trans. “Yīnyuè de Quēxí: Tán Yáng Déchāng de Dúlì Shídài Jí Qítā” (音樂的缺席:談楊德昌的《獨立時代 》及其他 The Absence of Music; Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion and Others). Film Appreciation Journal (Academic Section) (《電影欣賞》學術單元) 73 (1995.1): 65–74. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hung, Yue-ching (洪月卿). Chéngshì Guīlíng (城市歸零 City Zero). Taipei: Garden City, 2002. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Ching-chih (李清志). “Guópiàn Zhōng Duì Táiběi Dūshì Yìxiàng de Sùzào yǔ Zhuǎnhuàn” (國片中對台北都市意象的塑造與轉換 The Formation and Transformation of Taipei City in Taiwan Cinema) 1950–1990 Xúnzhǎo Diànyǐng Zhōng de Táiběi (1950–1990 尋找電影中的台北 1950–1990 In Search of Taipei in Films). Taipe: Wànxiàng Túshū (萬象圖書), 1995. 20–26.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Hsiu-chuan (李秀娟). “Shuí Zhīdào Zìjǐ Yàode Shì Shíme?–Yáng Déchāng Diànyǐng Zhōng de Hòushè ‘Xīn Táiběi’” (誰知道自己要的是什麼?:楊德昌電影中的後設「新臺北」Who Knows What S/he Wants?: Taipei in Edward Yang’s Meta-Discourse of Newness). Chung Wai Literary Quarterly (中外文學) 33.3 (2004.8): 39–61. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leigh, Alphonse Youth (李幼新). “Shìjì Dàdūhuì Zhòngshēngxiàng Èrshíyī Shìjì Guójì Xīnshìyě: Májiàng” (世紀大都會眾生相二十一世紀國際新視野—《麻將》 The New Cosmopolitan Perspective of the Metropolitan Lives in the 21st Century: Mahjong). Yǐngxiǎng Diànyǐng Zázhì (影響電影雜誌 Influence Film Magazine) 79 (1996.11): 120–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. “Yáng Déchāng de Yī Yī yǔ Hóu Xiàoxián de Qiānxǐ Mànbō” (楊德昌的《一一》與侯孝賢的《千禧曼波》Edward Yang’s A One and A Two and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Millennium Mambo). Shìjiè Diànyǐng (世界電影 World Screen) 403 (2002.7): 42.

    Google Scholar 

  • Li, Jerome Chen-ya (李振亞). “Yáng Déchāng de Xīn Kuángrén Rìjì” (楊德昌的新狂人日記 Edward Yang’s New Madman’s Diary). Yǐngxiǎng Diànyǐng Zázhì (影響電影雜誌 Influence Film Magazine) 80 (1996.12): 103–105. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin, Wen-chi (林文淇). “Táiwān Diànyǐng Zhōng de Táiběi Chéngxiàn” (台灣電影中的台北呈現 Representation of Taipei in Taiwan Cinema). 1950–1990 Xúnzhǎo Diànyǐng Zhōng de Táiběi (1950–1990 尋找電影中的台北 1950–1990 In Search of Taipei in Films). Taipei: Wànxiàng Túshū (萬象圖書), 1995.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Huáyǔ Diànyǐng Zhōng de Guójiāyùyán yǔ Guózúrèntóng (華語電影中的國家寓言與國族認同 The National Allegory and National Identity in Chinese Language Films). Chinese Taipei Film Archive, 2009. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shen, Shiao-ying (沈曉茵). “Májiàng: Lěng Dào Jízhì Jiù Yǒuài?–Luèshì Yáng Déchāng Dūhuìpiàn Zhōng de Lěng yǔ Ài” (《麻將:冷到極致就有愛?—略視楊德昌都會片中的冷與愛 Mahjong: The Coldest Love? A Glimpse at Edward Yang’s City Film). Yǐngxiǎng Diànyǐng Zázhì (影響電影雜誌 Influence Film Magazine) 80 (1996.12): 100–102. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Teng, Shu-fen (滕淑芬). “Going His Own Way: Cannes Award Winner Edward Yang” (走一條自己的路 ──楊德昌電影人生的《一一》告白). Taiwan Panorama (光華雜誌) 25 (2000.7): 73–81. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wong, Edmond (黃建業). Rénwéndiànyǐng de Zhuīxún (人文電影的追尋 In Search of Art Films). Taipei: Yuan-Liou, 1990.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. Yáng Déchāng Diànyǐng Yánjiū: Táiwān Xīndiànyǐng de Zhīxìng Sībiànjiā (楊德昌電影研究:台灣新電影的知性思辨家 A Study on Edward Yang: The Thinker in Taiwan New Cinema). Taipei: Yuan-liou, 1995. Print.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu, Isabelle Pei-tsz (吳珮慈). “(Níngshì Bèimiàn: Yī Yī de Xùshì Jiégòu yǔ Kōngjiān Biǎoshù Tǐxì Chūtàn” (凝視背面—《一一》的敘事結構與空間表述體系初探 Gazing at the Back: A Study on the Narrative Structure and Spatial Layout in A One and A Two). Film Appreciation Journal (Academic Section) (《電影欣賞》學術單元) 128 (2006): 83–96. Print.

    Google Scholar 

Filmography

  • A Confucian Confusion (獨立時代). Dir. Edward Yang (楊德昌). Perf. Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪), Ni Shu-chun (倪淑君), Wang Wei-ming (王維明), Wang Bo-sen (王柏森), Danny Teng (鄧安寧), and Richie Li (李芹). Atom Films and Theatre, 1994. DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • A One and a Two (一一). Dir. Edward Yang. Perf. Wu Nien-Jen (吳念真), Elaine Jin (金燕玲). Atom Films and Theatre, 2000. DVD.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mahjong (麻將). Dir. Edward Yang. Perf. Virginie Ledoyen, Ko Yu-luen (柯宇倫), Tang Tsung-sheng (唐從聖), Chang Chen (張震), and Wang Chi-tsan (王啟讚). Atom Films and Theatre, 1996. DVD.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

    Ivy I-chu Chang

Authors
  1. Ivy I-chu Chang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Chang, I.Ic. (2019). The Visible and the Invisible: Edward Yang’s Taipei Trilogy. In: Taiwan Cinema, Memory, and Modernity. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3567-9_2

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation