Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Daughter of the Nile Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 8, 2017

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's "Daughter of the Nile" (1987) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of British label Eureka Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include an original restored trailer for the film and brand new video interview with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns. In Mandarin, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The end

I think that it is impossible not to compare Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Daughter of the Nile and Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day. There are only four years that separate them and while the latter was clearly a much more elaborate production they certainly have nearly identical goals -- the two films attempt to capture the pulse of a changing country through the daily experiences of groups of young people who struggle to come to terms with their chosen identities and the ones that they are expected to have.

Daughter of the Nile is set sometime during the early ‘80s and the bulk of the events in it are seen through the eyes of a teenage girl named Lin (Lin Hhisao-yang) who can’t break out of a frequently very frustrating cycle of multitasking. During the day Lin works in a fast-food restaurant and in her free time does her best to help her younger sister with her homework, while at night she takes classes in a local school and tries to start a meaningful relationship with a handsome troublemaker (Fan Yang) who is hanging around with her ambitious but dangerously unpredictable older brother (Lin Hsiao-fang). There are days when Lin feels so worn out that she wonders whether it is even worth dreaming of a better life, and when such moments occur, she tries to be alone with her thoughts in a quiet spot until she recovers both physically and emotionally. Her brother’s life is also a roller-coaster ride with endless disappointments, but for entirely different reasons. He is a businessman running a cozy bar and trying to carve himself a niche in a busy district of Taipei, but he has plenty of powerful competitors from local gangs who don’t like the fact that he is changing their turf. It also isn’t helping that some of his trusted assistants have been involved in some really shady deals and have already openly clashed with the gangsters.

Lin and her brother’s lives begin to unravel when the police raid the bar and shortly after it becomes obvious that the business will not survive.

As the film progresses Lin is heard addressing the reasons behind crucial events that have rocked her entire family, but their chronology is largely unimportant. The focus of attention is on the rift that exists between the vision of a life that the young people want and the reality that they are stuck in. So the film gradually begins to reveal how their entire existence is one of endless compromises that has virtually all of them feeling completely misunderstood by the older generation that their families come from, and then when eventually their dreams begin to crumble they basically evolve into disillusioned strangers in their own country.

A similar disconnect between different generations is also examined in A Brighter Summer Day but the era is different and in this film there is actually a sense of a much bigger identity crisis. The heavy presence of the military and the manner in which people react to it, for instance, brings to the surface antagonistic views that really have a lot more to do with Taiwan’s post-war identity rather than with a properly functioning system that might have spiritually handicapped an entire generation.

Daughter of the Nile has a dreamy quality that is mostly typical for Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s work, but it lacks the lush and borderline surrealist beauty of visual stunners like Millennium Mambo. It is a more subdued and intimate film with an ‘80s vibe and a whiff of melancholy that actually remind of Francis Ford Coppola’s Rumble Fish.

Daughter of the Nile Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Daughter of the Nile arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Eureka Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a recent and quite impressive 4K restoration of the film. I should make it clear that I don't have an older DVD release to produce some direct comparisons, but to be honest even if I did they would have been absolutely redundant because the quality of the restoration quite simply cannot be reproduced on a DVD release. Detail, clarity and depth are outstanding, but I think that some of the transfer's greatest strengths are in the area of color reproduction and balance. Indeed, there is plenty of footage that was shot either indoors or at night and there is a color balance that is particularly impressive. This of course is something that also affects shadow definition and fluidity and the end result really is beautiful. There are no traces of digital anomalies. Overall image stability is also excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Daughter of the Nile Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: Mandarin LPCM 1.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio has been fully remastered and if there ever were any age-related imperfections it is now impossible to tell. Clarity, depth, and stability are terrific. Some minor unevenness exists during the outdoor footage where there are large groups of people, but this is hardly surprising. There are no audio dropouts, pops, or digital distortions to report.

Daughter of the Nile Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Theatrical Trailer - original restored trailer for Daughter of the Nile. In Mandarin, with optional English subtitles. (2 min).

• Tony Rayns Interview - in this video interview, film critic and filmmaker Tony Rayns discusses the production history of Daughter of the Nile, some of its key themes and how they are related to socio-cultural reality in Taiwan, some significant developments and trends in Hou Hsiao-Hsien's body of work and Taiwanese cinema during the period when the film was shot, etc. In English, not subtitled. (42 min).

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring new and archival writing.

Daughter of the Nile Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

After seeing various Taiwanese films during the years my impression is that there is a constantly evolving generational rift in the country. Since the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949 there have been numerous causes for its existence, but it appears that every new generation has economic and socio-cultural expectations that at some point are crushed and the profound frustration that emerges after that is basically what serves as its foundation. Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Daughter of the Nile captures some of this frustration as it is experienced by a group of young people living in Taipei during the '80s. Eureka Entertainment's Blu-ray release is sourced from a new and very beautiful 4K restoration of the film, and also includes a terrific new video piece with Asian cinema expert Tony Rayns. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.