Zhang, Tangmuyang2019-04-292019-04-292019-04-29http://hdl.handle.net/10222/75658My thesis examines the functions of five diegetic songs, “Along the Songhua River,” “Red Dragonfly,” “Lorelei,” “Wagon Song,” and “Spring Flower,” in Hou Hsiao- hsien’s film, A City of Sadness (1989). This cinematic work illustrates the political, cultural and historical development in Taiwan after a fifty-year period of Japanese colonization. My analysis of five songs in chapters two to six addresses three perspectives: the significance of narrative, the allegory hinted at by the counterpoint of music and images, and the role of female protagonists in each scene. By discussing the political-cultural background in the society during late twentieth-century Taiwan, as well as comparing the differences amongst the five scenes in which the songs occur, I emphasize on not only the role of music and sound, but also the relation amongst music, protagonists’ characteristics, gender roles, and the issue of identity.enfilm musicA City of SadnessMotion picture music