| dc.description.abstract | 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.
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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
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