The Sandwich Man (1983)
- Original title
- 兒子的大玩偶
- Directed by
- Tseng Chuang-hsiang, Wan Jen, Hou Hsiao-Hsien
- Genre
- drama film
- Country
- Taiwan
- Runtime
- 1h 45m
- Rating
- 7.1 of 10 from 27 voters
- Elsewhere
- IMDb
The catalogue in 3D
The film shelves have a room of their own that you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real films from the same catalogue when you tell them what you feel like watching. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this film is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.
How it feels
Three short stories show the lives of ordinary people in Taiwan during the shift to an industrialized society. One story follows a man who works as a walking advertisement in clown makeup to support his family.
poignantearthyslow-burnunderstatedeveryday-struggleobservationalbittersweet
What happens
The Sandwich Man (Chinese: 兒子的大玩偶; pinyin: Erzi de da wan'ou) is a 1983 Taiwanese film. The film project was proposed and put into plan by Hsiao Yeh and Wu Nien-jen. It was directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien and two other then-new directors, Tsang Jong-cheung (曾壯祥) and Wan Jen. The script by Wu Nien-jen is based on three stories from Huang Chun-ming's short stories collection The Taste of Apples. The three stories together vividly portray the society of Taiwan during the Cold War period, when it underwent industrialization with help from the United States. The film is regarded as a hallmark at the beginning of Taiwanese New Cinema. The title of the film is derived from the film's first namesake vignette, The Sandwich Man, also known as The Son's Big Doll. Directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, it depicts the hardship of a young man who ekes out a bare living for his young family by putting on clown makeup and costume to be a walking movie advertisement board. The second vignette, Vickie's Hat, is directed by Tsang Jong-cheung. It depicts a fresh young salesman's disillusionment with the fairytale of modernization, when one of the Japanese pressure cookers he tried to sell to villagers accidentally exploded during a demonstration and critically wounded his colleague. The third vignette, The Taste of Apples, is directed by Wan Jen. It portrays the poverty of a family living in the ghetto of Taipei City by showing how they could stay in a clean place like an American Navy hospital and have a taste of an apple, only after the father was luckily hit by an American colonel's car. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)
More like this
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A Flower in the Raining Night (1983)
Kuo Chung Shih Ssu Chang (1983)
Green, Green Grass of Home (1983)
The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)
Cabaret Tears (1983)
Enormous Changes at the Last Minute (1983)
Growing Up (1983)- More like this film, on a shelf you can walk up to.It's the lit case on the top shelf.