Hou Hsiao-hsien's masterpiece. Unrelentlingly sad and equally unrelentingly beautiful, it shows this history of a family in Taiwan from 1945 to 1949: their complex relationship to the departing Japanese colonizers, and their sufferings at the hands of their new Kuomintang colonizers. Hugely popular and important on its release in Taiwan in 1989, it marked the beginning of a process of coming to terms with recent Taiwanese history, the first Taiwanese film recorded in sync sound (hence Tony Leung's character, a deaf-mute), and the beginning of Hou's Taiwanese history trilogy: followed by THE PUPPETMASTER (1993), and GOOD MEN GOOD WOMEN (1995). One of the greatest films in any language.