A Borrowed Life 多桑 (Duo Sang) is a film directed by Wu Nien-Jen, one of the stars of the Taiwanese New Wave, writer of several of Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s films and star of Edward Yang’s Yi-Yi.
I have two questions. Firstly has anyone seen this? AFAIK there’s no non-celluloid copy with English subs.
Secondly, is anyone interested in helping me do some fan-subs. I can do most of the work myself (off a disc with Taiwanese audio and hard-coded Mandarin subs), but need someone with much better Chinese to check it.
[quote]
MARTIN: Continuing our special show on the best movies of the '90s, my choice for Number 3 is a 1994 Taiwanese film called “A Borrowed Life,” directed by Wu Nien-jen. The Chinese title is “Do-sang," which means “Father.” It’s an autobiographical story about a poor family in the Taiwanese countryside during the 1950s, right after the end of Japanese rule and the nationalist secession from the mainland.[/quote]
I saw it back in the 1990s when it came out. A gorgeously slow film shot in the Hou Hsien/Ozu style. At times it is almost like an anthropological film, but it rises to an emotional crescendo at the end that is unforced and unsentimental (a real achievement in Taiwanese cinema). I loved it, but it was the epitome of the kind of art house film Taiwanese audiences got tired of being forced to watch.
Couldn’t get your url to work Feiren, but I should have been clearer. When I said ‘unavailable’ I really meant inaccessible to those who can’t read Chinese. I don’t think there are any versions with English subs available anywhere (other than a few prints of the original film - maybe even just one).