WRITING:
Intertitles
INTRODUCTION
It has been pointed out that the intertitles in the film are written in
the language of Mandarin, which cannot be verbalized in the Taiwanese
dialects. This observation contradicts the historical reality that most
Taiwanese did not speak Mandarin in the late 1940s. This seemingly
accurate critique overlooks the entire body of the literary works written
in Chinese by the anti-colonial Taiwanese novelists and poets during the
occupation period. As literary scholar Lu Zhenghuei suggests, anti-
colonial writers might not have been able to read aloud their writing in
standard Mandarin, they wrote Chinese literature as an act of political
resistance against colonialism. This helps explain why the writing in the
intertitles appear quite "classical" compared to the verbal language of the
Taiwanese. As the intertitles are presented in a form of writing, they are
obsessed with myth-telling and supplementary pedagogical history as
another narration of the nation.
- I. "My brothers disappear during the war." (A:
10:06~10:23)
- The first intertitle in the film appears when Wen-ching first
communicates with Hinomi through writing. Their conversation concerned
a photo taken before Wenching's brothers went to WWII (they were forced
to fight for the Japanese). The formal device for re-presenting the words
of mute Wen-ching is modeled after a device of narrative agency from the
silent cinema, where intertitles were utilized for narrative
comprehension before the coming of recorded sound. The appropriation of
this silent film device seems to have two important registers, to say the
very least. One is obviously the diegetic: Wen-ching's inability to
communicate through verbal language. The other important register is its
aesthetic deployment. Why use intertitles, not subtitles? Putting the
words against a black surface, the intertitle invites the spectator to
"read" rather than to "see." The subtitle is the technology devised at the
close of the silent era to overcome the problems of sonic linguistic
frontiers. Conventionally, it "translates" the dialogue between languages
in as discreet and transparent a manner. Here the silent film intertitle is
used to convey non-verbal dialogue. And unlike intertitles in silent film,
as a formal mechanism to transcribe the silenced dialogue or stand in for
an implied narrator, the intertitles of City of Sadness seem to generate
their own presence, resisting subordination to the visual track. These
graphic substitutions for sound stand in an interdependency with visual
representation and silence.
- Therefore, the quasi-arbitrary relationship between the visual
track and the intertitle assures the latter's textual quality as writing.
Then the next questions about the intertitles we must ask are, "What is
the writing about? What is its relationship to the diegesis? What role
does it play in the film's discourse about history, memory, and politics?"
If we consider the tense of all the film's intertitles, it is not surprising
to discover that relative to the temporal moment of the enunciation of the
"speaker" (Wen-ching), they all involve the past, be it the recollection of
personal history and public events, or of folklore.
- If we try to "totalize" or "thematize" the intertitles, we may
come to the conclusion that all of them are involved more or less with the
business of myth-making. The writing of myth is particularly crucial in
the allegorical construction of the nation's genealogy. As Benedict Anderson suggests, cultural specificity has
been the exclusive domain of the nation as it constructs the identity of its
national culture. Similarly, part of Hou's ambition in City of
Sadness extends beyond the mere representation of a political
incident from the distant past. In addition to the troping of the birth, or
the rebirth, of the nation as embodied in the opening sequence, the project
of narrating the nation also requires the inclusion of the "past," or to be
specific, the "origin" of the nation. It seems that there is no better way
to narrate the origin of a nation without first setting up its geographic
specificity. Perhaps this can explain why the first intertitle of the film
concerns the whereabouts of Wen-ching's second brother (last seen in the
Philippines) and his third brother (who is said to have disappeared in
Shanghai). The geographic mapping of the locations of the brothers ranges
from the Philippines to the Chinese mainland. This mapping seems to
imply the linkage of Taiwan with her neighboring islands in the Pacific
and, more significantly, mainland China, which has been serving as the
defining geographicaly matrix for the Han Chinese residing in Taiwan. By
sketching a geographic map of the Lin family's missing sons, the physical
locality of Taiwan is subtly and successfully allegorized. (Illustration: Map of Taiwan)
- II. Hinomi and Wen-ching in their private world.
(A: 38:45-44:20)
- Perhaps the most evident myth-making for creating the
genealogy of a nation can be drawn from the intimate communication
between Wen-ching and Hinomi. This scene begins with a discussion of
politics and social problems during a social gathering at Wen-ching's
house. While the political discussion continues at the center of the room,
Wen-ching and Hinomi soon move to their private world, communicating
with each other through music and writing. First, Wen-ching plays a
record of "Lorelei," a famous German song, and Hinomi writes to him about
the story of the song. The story tells about a beautiful siren whose
charms become fatal attractions to many enchanted sailors. The insertion
of a German folk myth seems quite anachronistic. Yet, it helps situate a
pre-symbolic stage before the totality of a national concept comes into
being.
- III. Wen-ching's childhood. (A: 44:21~47:37)
-
The mythical aura also exists in Wen-ching's writing of his own
story, in which he talks about his childhood desire to become a cross-
dressing opera actor. The image track then visualizes his writing, bringing
us back to a mythical past first by presenting a costumed actor
performing in a rural backdrop where villagers gather around in an outdoor
space, watching the opera. Then the shot cuts to a group of nearby
children mimicing the actor. Before the visualization of the writing about
childhood story, Wen-ching has mentioned how his wish was ridiculed by
his teacher because opera was regarded as an occupation as degrading as
prostitution. The man's role in opera was particularly controversial
because women were excluded from acting profession, leaving all female
roles to male actors. Given the gender ambiguity in opera performance,
the opera actor's quasi homoerotic appeal was even more scandalizing.
Bearing this history in mind, Wen-ching's memory of his childhood before
he loses his hearing faculties seems to suggest the pre-symbolic, pre-
colonial Taiwan dominated by a quasi mythical aura and infused with the
spectacle of traditional opera, gender ambiguity, and innocence.
-
The myth writing embodied in the intertitles continues to dominate
the troping in the sequence where Hinoe and Hinomi tell Wen-ching about a
young woman who kills herself before she would be conquered by age and
disease. This true story kindled the collective passion of Japanese youth
during the Meiji restoration period. (A: 29:40-31:48) Why choose a
Japanese myth? The attempt to construct a genealogy of nationhood is
embodied in the seemingly neocolonial appropriation of the myth taught by
the colonizers. This "misappropriation" has been used by critical
historians in questioning Hou's understanding of history and politics.
While it is beyond our ability and scope to judge Hou's political attitudes
in incorporating a Meiji myth into his construction of the genealogy of
Taiwan, we would like to point out that the concept of hybridity is crucial
in discussing the construction of nationhood and culture in Taiwan. As we
have mentioned in the brief sketch of Taiwan's
history, emigration and colonialism have dominated the historical
development of Taiwan since the sixteenth century. Obviously, Hou's
conception of how the origin of national culture should be represented
seems to be highly influenced by the nature of hybridity and dispersion,
two long-time defining qualities of Taiwan's nationhood. Thus, the
incorporation of Japanese myth in the early 20th century seems an
inevitable choice.
Main Table of Contents
Sound/Writing/Photography
- Sound
- Writing
- Photography