May 9, 2021
Daughter of the Nile
– Taiwan, 1987
The film begins with a dash of Shakespeare: A young woman
named Hsiao-yang (Yang Lin) looks directly at the camera and establishes the back story of
the family we are about to follow. We learn that death has reared its ugly head
more than one. The matriarch of the family died after a long battle with
cancer, the older brother is also gone, though the details of his fate remain
unexplained. We learn the siblings – Hsiao-fang (Jack Kao), Hsiao-yang, and Xiao-wei -
relocated to northern Taiwan, while the father (Fu Sheng Tsui) remained in the southwestern
city of Chiayi, likely due to a job in law enforcement. The arrangement
essentially makes Hsiao-fang, a dashingly handsome young man who dropped out of
school to pursue economic opportunities, the head of the family. His sister Hsiao-yang,
who works at KFC, is taking night classes, while also helping to raise Hsiao-wei,
the youngest of the siblings. It is a set-up that benefits no one.
Well, almost no one, for sometimes great responsibility
brings out the best in people. For all the talk of Hsiao-fang’s uncontrollable childhood
wildness, the young man we see in the beginning seems to have his life on
track. He’s opened a restaurant, is in a relationship, and resolves disputes
with surprising composure. And while he has not completely given up his wicked
ways – in one scene, we witness him escaping from an apartment after
burglarizing it – we sense that his ultimate goal is to turn over a new leaf.
Smartly, Hou avoids overly dramatic scenes in favor of short
snippets which, added up, give up enough of the story to understand the sentiments
of those involved. There are a few interesting scenes featuring the sibling’s
grandfather (Tianlu Li) that illustrate just how emasculated he has become and explain why
he would take such an interest in mentoring Xiao-wei. There are also scenes of
Hsiao-yang passing her time in her brother’s restaurant, a habit that exposes
her to a few less respectful members of society, and we see enough of Xiao-wei’s
academic struggles to see that in a few years she could be where her sister is now.
I realize I’m making Daughter
of the Nile into a bit of a downer, which is not entirely accurate, for
when we get a glimpse into Hsiao-yang’s life, we are reminded of it’s many
wonders – a shy boy’s attempts at asking a young lady to the movies, the
everyday tussles of the classroom, and the inevitable approach of adulthood.
During one moving sequence, we see Hsiao-yang and her friends joyfully
celebrating life and friendship at a beachside bonfire, while hearing an older
Hsiao-yang explain the impermanence of the moment. Some classmates, she tell
us, would soon leave for college; others would join the army or go overseas. Life
is never static. And, of course, there are plenty of squandered opportunities.
With Daughter of the
Nile, Hou created a film that is both beautiful and heartbreaking. It
captures the many highs and lows of youth, as well as its promise and
disappointment. In it, we see the opportunity that economic progress allows and
just how easy it is for it to slip away, especially for those who are their own
worst enemy. We enable, we cut corners, we put our heart over our head. We’ve
all been there. And maybe that is the true genius of Hou’s films. While they
are about Taiwan, there’s something universal about them. We’ve all lost
people, we’ve all had first loves, we’ve all had moments of moral regression,
and we’ve all had moments when we were suddenly aware of the fleeting nature of
many of life’s pleasures. I remain grateful to Hou and his masterful screen
writer Chu Tien-Wen. He and movies like Daughter
of the Nile are true treasures. (on DVD and Blu-ray)
4 stars
*Daughter of the Nile
is in Taiwanese and Mandarin.
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