Not Just 'Lubeehua'! 10 Classic Taiwanese Films Everyone Should Watch, This One Becomes More Heartbreaking Upon Rewatching in Adulthood, Leaving the Entire Audience in Tears

'The stars in the sky do not speak, the children on the ground miss their mothers.' The song 'Lubeehua' reminds many Taiwanese people of their childhood days singing in school and watching movies with their families. When they first watched 'Lubeehua,' they only felt sorry for Ah-Ming's plight. However, upon rewatching as adults, they realized that the true heart-wrenching aspect is how poverty, power, and rigid standards conspire to miss a child's potential. This is the power of classic Taiwanese films. They have made us cry and laugh, and have hidden history that textbooks may not clearly explain within a family, a meal, and a belated apology. This article compiles 10 classic films that carry Taiwan's collective memory based on netizen reviews, taking you from rural education, mining days, and post-war migration to modern families, to help you understand the path this land has taken. Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 1: 'Lubeehua' - Crying for Ah-Ming as a Child, Seeing Education and Class as an Adult 'Lubeehua' tells the story of a rural child's brush with destiny, depicting the poverty, educational gap, and local power that once existed in Taiwanese villages. Ah-Ming, the son of a tea farmer, falls behind in his studies but has a vivid imagination. He paints dogs in the sunset as red and the sun as deep blue, hoping his father working in the tea fields wouldn't be so hot. Guo Yuntian, a teacher from the city, sees his talent and wants to recommend him for a painting competition, but the school gives the opportunity to the mayor's son instead. Ah-Ming loses not just a competition, but the chance to be understood, supported, and possibly change his life through painting. Years later, watching this movie again, the tea fields, bamboo rafts, muddy paths, and the silhouettes of siblings relying on each other also become part of many people's memories of a simple, poor, yet humane Taiwan. Many netizens say that as children, they only knew how to cry while watching 'Lubeehua.' As adults, they realize that the movie's true sting is the unfairness of the adult world. Some can never forget Ah-Ming tearing down his drawings from the wall and throwing his colored pencils into the river, crying that he would never draw again. Others feel particularly heartbroken when Teacher Guo leaves, saying, 'Don't ask the teacher why, okay?' because Ah-Ming seems to have already understood that 'rich kids are better at everything.' The cruellest part is that the school only loudly proclaims him a genius after his death. A netizen laments that the movie touched them in their childhood, and rewatching it decades later brings a new understanding, as if the process of growing up is also the process of digesting 'Lubeehua.' Someone else says that they used to cry just by listening to the song, but after watching the movie, they feel 'their tears are not enough.' Taiwan's classic national film 'Lubeehua' is currently in hot release, with box office revenues exceeding 2 million NT dollars so far. (Image source: YT@ TFAI National Film and Audiovisual Culture Center) Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 2: 'Wrong Car' - A cry of 'If the empty bottles are not for sale' sings of the disappearing old community and fatherly love 'Wrong Car' revolves around a deaf veteran, La Shu, who makes a living by collecting empty bottles. He finds an abandoned baby, Ah Mei, and dedicates his life to her. As Ah Mei grows up and enters the music industry, La Shu gradually loses his familiar neighbors, the house he has lived in for many years, and the life he shared with his daughter. On the surface, the movie depicts the reunion and separation of a foster father and daughter, but beneath the surface, it records the era of rapid urban expansion in Taiwan: illegal communities are demolished, and the underprivileged who live by scavenging and odd jobs are forced to leave. The once close-knit social network also collapses. 'If the empty bottles are not for sale' sings of the debt of raising a child, while 'The same moonlight' questions why, as the city seems to progress, the familiar home and life continue to disappear. Many netizens initially viewed 'Wrong Car' as a tear-jerking father-daughter story. Upon rewatching, they realize that La Shu has truly lost an entire old era. A netizen wrote that La Shu and his old neighbors, despite experiencing bereavement and poverty, could still find a place to belong in their familiar community. It was only after their houses were demolished and their neighbors scattered that they were pushed into a completely unfamiliar world. 'When did the frogs and cicadas become memories?' becomes a question that resonates with many people's hearts. Someone else believes that the movie's depiction of 'people, home, and era' remains valid even after many years. A truly profound work does not have to be difficult to understand. La Shu pulling his cart, Ah Mei standing on stage, and the familiar song playing are enough to remind one of their own parents. Another netizen says that the more they work outside and the fewer times they return home, the more they understand the weight of 'a child wants to take care of their parents, but the parents are no longer there.' Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 2: 'Wrong Car' - A cry of 'If the empty bottles are not for sale' sings of the disappearing old community and fatherly love (Image source: movie screenshot) Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 3: 'Mom, Love Me Again' - The entire theater cried when it was released, only as an adult do you understand the mother's plight 'Mom, Love Me Again' tells the story of Huang Qiu Xia and Lin Guo Rong, a wealthy young man, falling in love but being torn apart by their families due to class differences. She gives birth to a son, Xiao Qiang, alone and raises him in hardship. Later, to give her son a better environment, she has to bear the pain of giving him to the Lin family. Xiao Qiang runs back to his mother's side time and time again. Qiu Xia, although reluctant, is forced to push the child away, ultimately losing her original life in an accident and mental collapse. The mother-son separation in the movie once made several generations cry. As an adult, the anger is not only towards fate but also towards the class differences, the continuation of the family line, and the patriarchal family system that decides a woman's love, children, and future. 'The world only has good mothers' is no longer just a children's song but a lament of a mother who keeps sacrificing herself. This movie was once the collective memory of many people's school days. A netizen recalls that the school took the entire student body to the theater, and the teacher even reminded them to bring handkerchiefs. During the screening, the crying did not stop. Someone else joked that after watching it as a family of three, they all cried so much that they couldn't speak. Their mother, wiping her tears, asked, 'Have you finished your homework?' Many people say that as children, they saw the mother-son separation. As adults, they feel the sadness of Huang Qiu Xia as a woman. After becoming a mother, she almost lost her own name and choices. However, some netizens criticize the movie for being too emotional, with the characters repeatedly creating tragedy through sacrifice. These controversies, however, give the work another layer of value: it makes today's audience re-examine whether motherly love must be proven by self-sacrifice. Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 4: 'A City of Sadness' - A family gradually loses members, revealing the unspeakable wounds of the February 28th era 'A City of Sadness' uses the fate of the four Lin brothers from Keelung to guide the audience through the era of Japan's defeat, the Kuomintang's takeover of Taiwan, the February 28th Incident, and the subsequent political purge. The eldest son Wen Xiong struggles to maintain the family business, the second son goes missing after going to Southeast Asia, the third son returns from the battlefield but becomes mentally ill, and the youngest son Wen Qing, who is deaf and mute, is arrested in the turmoil. The movie does not depict history as a series of impassioned speeches but lets it fall into the daily life: the radio broadcasts news of the change of power, but the family still has people giving birth, holding weddings, eating, and writing letters, but the seats at the dining table become increasingly empty. For many Taiwanese families, the February 28th Incident and the White Terror were not completely unknown but something that the elders dared not speak of and the younger generations dared not ask. 'A City of Sadness' lets those suppressed voices be seen for the first time in the way a family loses its members. When netizens talk about 'A City of Sadness,' the most frequently mentioned is not the intense scenes but the era in the film where communication is impossible. Someone noticed that the eldest brother speaks in Taiwanese, the youngest brother translates it into Cantonese, and then conveys it to the Shanghainese. Even though they are on the same island, people seem to live in a world where they do not understand each other. Someone else remembers the line 'We islanders are the most pitiful, first the Japanese, then the Chinese, everyone eats, everyone rides, no one loves,' believing that it speaks not of politics but of the powerlessness of ordinary people facing changes in power. Many netizens are also deeply impressed by Wen Qing and Kuan Mei's quiet love. In a city full of fear, they leave a brief moment of tenderness through paper, eye contact, and diaries. A critic describes the history in the movie as lovers' whispers, a girl's diary, casual letters, and blood-stained wills, because the broken era, in the end, can only leave broken words. Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 4: 'A City of Sadness' - A family gradually loses members, revealing the unspeakable wounds of the February 28th era (Image source: provided by Gaoshi Film Museum) Taiwan Classic Film Recommendation 5: 'The Silent Mountain' - Jin Guan Shi is not a gold mining paradise but a mountain that devours miners 'The Silent Mountain' takes us back to the 1920s during the Japanese colonial period in Jin Guan Shi. Yan's tenant farmers Ah Zhu and Ah Biao escape from the landlord's control, hearing that there is gold in the mountains, and enter the mining area with dreams of turning their lives around. They thought that if they found gold, they could buy land and pay off debts. In reality, however, they could only work in the dark mines at the risk of their lives, and most of the gold they mined ended up in the hands of the colonizers. Around the mining area, there are women like Ah Rou who live with their children, women trapped in brothels, and Ryukyu siblings who also find no belonging. The movie does not condense the colonial period into a few policies but shows how miners get injured, women survive, and the poor remain empty-handed in a mountain rich in gold. Today, tourists standing in Jinfeng and Jin Guan Shi looking at the mountains and seas can hardly imagine how much sweat and lives are buried beneath their feet. 'The Silent Mountain' gives this common people's history a face again. Many netizens call this film 'the epic of Taiwanese commoners,' believing that the customs of an era, colonial issues, and the lives of the underclass are all contained in a nearly three-hour story. Someone particularly likes Yang Gui Mei's portrayal of Ah Rou, who lives with her child, saves money bit by bit in her own way, and still has a strong spirit of not yielding when facing death and humiliation. Someone else notices that Ah Zhu and Ah Biao had just entered the mining area when the deaths of many miners were already hinted along the way. They sell tea