Because of the institutional bias towards mainland China in most academic and political contexts, most of us are ill-equipped to approach Taiwanese cinema. Straddling the historical, political and cultural frontiers between the Japanese occupation and the nationalist incursion, City of Sadness proves a particularly dense text. One can hardly begin to appreciate the film without understanding the circumstances of the Taiwanese film industry, the historical situation of Taiwan and the multiple rewritings of that history. This background is available here to those willing to take the plunge.