Kuei-Mei, a Woman
(Wo zhe yang guo le yi sheng)

A melodrama of the Taiwanese woman, the film’s original title could be translated as “I had a life”. In Chang Yi’s oeuvre, Kuei-Mei a Woman follows on directly from Jade Love (1984), which paints a romantic picture of a maid’s life. The life of Kuei-Mei found its perfect actress in Hui-Shan, dubbed the Meryl Streep of Taiwan cinema. To escape civil war in China, Kuei-Mei emigrates to Taiwan in the 1950s and, out of necessity, marries an alcoholic widower who gambles and already has three children. With relentless obstinacy, she manages to provide for her family in a Taipei steeped in turmoil, before deciding to go to Japan. In the 1980s, she is now a grandmother and goes back to find the Taiwanese capital transformed. JB