Prince Of Tears
Yonfan

The story: Taiwan’s White Terror period was at its peak in the 1950s. During that time, thousands of people suspected of being communist spies and sympathisers were arrested and interrogated. When their father Sun Han-sun (Joseph Chang) and mother Ping (Zhu Xuan) are taken away, sisters Li (Cai Pei-han) and Zhou (Yan Xin-rou) find their lives irrevocably changed and they have to depend on family friend Uncle Ding (Fan Chih-wei) for help. Zhou is also shown kindness by her schoolmate Rainbow Liu (Lee Bo-shiuan) and her mother Ouyang Liu (Terri Kwan).

One would never have guessed that the film-maker responsible for the risible howler that was Colour Blossoms (2004) is the same man behind the restrained and measured drama that is Prince Of Tears.
The earlier movie by Yonfan, which explores various sexual relationships, was scattered, lightweight and indulgent – everything that Prince is not. It is as though the heft of history has anchored this film and curbed the worst of his excesses.The feature was in the running for the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last year but lost out to the war drama Lebanon.
The story here is based on the life of actress Lisa Chiao Chiao, a Shaw Studios star in the 1960s and 1970s who was in films such as the noir thriller A Cause To Kill (1970). The director-playwright also drew on his childhood memories of a period that is still painful to revisit for many in Taiwan.
The anti-communist White Terror refers to the political suppression that took place while Taiwan was under martial law from May 19, 1949 to July 15, 1987. During this time, more than 3,000 people were summarily executed, and more than 8,000 others were imprisoned for real or imagined support of the communists. Others who have drawn on this turbulent time include Hou Hsiao-hsien in City Of Sadness (1989), the first film to do so.
Prince makes it clear that there was flagrant abuse going on in the name of cracking down on communism and it was not uncommon for innocent folks to be hauled off on trumped-up charges.
This miscarriage of justice is particularly poignant here because much of what happens is portrayed from the children’s point of view. Their loss of innocence is devastating as they try to piece together what is happening around them and learn bitter lessons about betrayal.
As an audience member, one identifies with them as one is also trying to figure out the tangled web of relationships among Sun, Ping, Uncle Ding and Ouyang Liu.There is much that is left unsaid in the ellipses but the holding back works as a dramatic device to keep one invested in the tale, which unfolds at a leisurely pace.
The cast does a good job. Chang brims with vigour as a pilot with the picture-perfect family and Fan passes muster in the trickier role as the secretive and possibly despicable Ding. Newcomer Zhu and previous Golden Horse Award nominee Kwan are elegant and intriguing. The child actors are self-conscious at points but are generally convincing and deeply moving in a few scenes.
Leaving aside the aberrant Colour Blossoms, one can see echoes of Yonfan’s other works here. He has previously tackled the subject of doomed relationships among languid women and handsome men in films such as Peony Pavilion (2001) and Bishonen (1998).
Then there is the beautiful art direction and the penchant for the voice-over which, in Prince, invites the question of who the narrator is exactly.
Despite the tragedy that envelopes the characters, Yonfan does not cloak Prince with defeatism but instead presents an enigmatic ending that lingers on long after the credits have rolled.
(ST)