In City of Sadness, the closest Hou's camera approaches any character is from the chest up, what would probably be defined a medium close-up. It's a physical distance which translates into an emotional one as well. However, Hou's films can be quite moving, and the lack of close-ups is (surprisingly enough) one of the reasons.
Medium close-ups of single characters are close enough to make facial expressions legible, but by keeping the camera away from the action, long-shots emphasize the context among characters. By extension, this reflects a cultural emphasis on the family before the individual, deriving, in the last instance, from a long history of Confucian thought. This suggests that in American movies, our cultural obsession with individuality translates into a cinematic singling-out by means of the close-up; narrative focus on a hero is complemented by the mise-en- scene. City of Sadness presents an alternative approach to mise-en-scene where, more often than not, the characters are seen (in long-shot) in the context of other family members. In fact, the only true close-up of the film is of a photograph Wen-ching is touching up: a family portrait (B 12:07-13:52). Hou compounds his visual orientation towards the plural by diffusing the narrative attention among a number of characters. As in most of his other films, it's difficult to decide who the primary character is. We suggest this is, to some degree, a characteristic not only of the New Cinema, but of Asian cinema in general.
According to Hou, he began using long-shots to cover for his non- professional actors. At the same time, he asserts that the long-shot --- combined with the long take --- produces a special kind of image: "I'm not using the long-shot just for the sake of the actors. A screen holding a long-shot has a certain kind of tension, and for this you can't find an alternative method to substitute. I realize I am confronted with a contradiction here..." (Dominic: 16). It is difficult to provide an example of this effect, since it relies heavily on the accumulation of emotional resonance from shot to shot. At the same time, moving in for the closeup when Hinomi and Wen-ching learn of Hiromi's death is unthinkable. Nothing is more devastating that watching nearly three minutes of their baby crawling around oblivious to their tragedy (C 29:52-31:49). Likewise, the palpable tension in Hou's long-shots is crucial for energizing off-screen space and the violence it just barely contains.