DAUGHTER OF THE NILE: An Underseen Drama Is Winningly Restored
Daughter of the Nile, the 1987 drama from Taiwanese auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien about one young woman’s attempt to hold her troubled family together, was never released theatrically in the United States. Nor did it ever receive a home video release, making it one of the more underseen films in the renowned director’s oeuvre.
However, a 30th anniversary 4K restoration, released theatrically in fall of 2017 and now available on Blu-ray and DVD from the Cohen Film Collection, should change that for the better. The film, a gorgeous exploration of life on the margins of Taipei society, doesn’t have much in the way of a propulsive plot, but it makes up for that with rich atmosphere and characters that feel so real, you’ll swear you just saw them walk by.
Life at a Standstill
Hsiao-yang (Taiwanese pop star Lin Yang) barely has a moment to herself between working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken, attending night school, and attempting to keep her brother and sister from backsliding into lives of crime. She’s the closest thing to an authority figure in her home: her mother passed away from cancer, her older brother died in a car crash, and her relatively deadbeat father works out of town.
He only periodically pops up in the family’s rundown home on the dusty grey outskirts of Taipei, far from the bustling neon-lit streets that Hsiao-yang’s brother, Hsiao-fang (Jack Kao) and his gang of wannabe criminals are attempting to rule. On top of all that, Hsiao-yang’s preteen sister appears to take after Hsiao-fang – she is already starting to steal.
Hsiao-yang finds herself falling for one of her brother’s associates, a gigolo named Ah-sang (Fan Yang). He doesn’t return her affections, too preoccupied with a married woman who has dangerous criminal ties. This unfortunate dalliance is what ignites the flame of the gang’s undoing; their attempts at playing gangster backfire as the brutal repercussions of delving into the Taipei underworld begin to wreak havoc on their lives.
Elegant Introspection
Daughter of the Nile seesaws between the meandering monotony of Hsiao-yang’s days and the melodrama of her nights as she hovers on the periphery of darkness, wanting to save those around her and unable to do so. The film’s title is a reference to a manga series that Hsiao-yang reads whenever she has a spare moment, about an American teenager who travels back in time to ancient Egypt and falls in love with a pharaoh – the perfect escape from Hsiao-yang’s reality.
Yet her existence already feels quite dreamlike, thanks to the film’s gorgeous cinematography and the ethereal soundtrack comprising songs sung by Lin (though she doesn’t perform on camera during the film). Watching Daughter of the Nile, one almost feels as though one is watching old family movies on VHS; the newly restored visuals have a worn-in feel and lush color palette that combine to give the film a wonderful vintage vibe.
The story of Daughter of the Nile is more poetry than plot, more driven by visuals than by dialogue. The performances are fine, but none of them revelatory. If the film were any longer than 93 minutes, or any less beautifully crafted, it could verge on boring – after all, it is a film about youthful ennui. Instead, it feels like a brief trip into someone else’s life, a life lived on the fringes of society but no less valuable for it.
The characters all feel like real young people you’d meet on the street: aimless and awkward, trying to determine the right path to take into adulthood and occasionally too impatient to wait for the right one to come along. This can make them both unbearably frustrating and heartbreakingly sympathetic, but never unwatchable.
Daughter of the Nile: Conclusion
Daughter of the Nile is a prime example of the underseen gems that we are privileged to finally have access to thanks to distributors like the Cohen Film Collection. You might have to dig a little deeper to find them, but when you do, you are rewarded with something special.
What do you think? Will you be checking out Daughter of the Nile now that it is finally available? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The 4K restoration of Daughter of the Nile was released on Blu-ray and DVD March 20, 2018.
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