Good Bye! Darling

Taiwan, 1970 / restored 2024, 96’, Mandarin

Directed by: Pai Ching-jui
Screenplay: Chang Yung-hsiang, Liu Wei-ping
Cinematography (color): Lin Tzan-ting
Editing: Wang Shou
Art Direction: Li Hsiao-ching
Music: Joseph Koo, Tso Hung-yuan
Producer: Chou Ching-ting
Cast: Ko Chun-hsiung, Chang Mei-yao, Chu Ching, Li Hsiang, Sun Yueh

Date of First Release in Territory: July 30th, 1970
 
This film is regarded as one of Pai Ching-jui’s landmark artistic achievements. At the close of the 1960s wave of “Healthy Realism,” and after the commercial and critical success of Home, Sweet Home (1970), Pai embraced a new style of realism more faithful to his own vision. With the support of Biansing Motion Picture, he completed Good Bye! Darling, an adaptation loosely inspired by Chen Yingzhen’s short story Generals. Rather than adhering strictly to the source material – which depicts a tragic gulf of age and identity between a veteran who came to Taiwan from China and a young band member nicknamed A-tou – the film relegates that plot to a secondary thread. In its place, it introduces A-lang, a free-spirited drifter who, having spent his days irresponsibly flitting between women, begins to yearn for stability and risks his life to make a living. This shift reflects Taiwan’s broader transformation from an agricultural society to an industrial and commercial one, and underlines how ordinary people search for personal fulfillment in the midst of economic change.

In addition to symbolising a pivot towards local identity, “A-lang” embodies Pai Ching-jui’s determination to tell a story about cinema itself within the historical context of filmmaking. Under the policy-driven “Healthy Realism,” Pai longed for a purer, more natural artistic approach that would resonate more directly with everyday life. For instance, while the film is mainly in Mandarin, it occasionally incorporates spoken Taiwanese, underscoring the divisions between native Taiwanese and those who come from China. A key scene involves A-lang and Kuai Chi’s sexual encounter, which boldly reveals the “unhealthy within the healthy” through the fluttering of paper cranes and close-ups capturing their heavy breathing and perspiration. This cross-cutting technique directly portrays the passion shared by ordinary individuals and hints at a freer emotional possibility within the domain of art-house filmmaking.

Lin Tzan-ting, the cinematographer and Pai’s longtime collaborator, mentioned in an interview that he sought to evoke the rural mood of Italian Neorealism, with images of distant mountains, trees in close-up, dawn-tinted skies, and sets constructed on location in Tainan. Such details intensify the film’s subtle depiction of everyday life among ordinary people.

Ko Chun-hsiung’s portrayal of A-lang marks a significant departure from his earlier romantic lead roles, transforming him into a reckless drifter prone to fighting and womanising – leading many critics to compare him to Mifune Toshiro in Kurosawa Akira’s films.

Whether through the adapted screenplay or the production team’s commitment to capturing local realities, Bai Jing-rui unleashes an unbridled sense of emotional vitality. Through the relationship between A-lang and Kuai Chi, the film extends the boundless charms of human life and underlines the inexhaustible appeal of Taiwan Cinema.

 

Pai Ching-jui

Pai Ching-jui was one of the renowned Taiwanese directors. A film critic, he went to study film in Italy and was deeply influenced by Italian Neorealism. After returning, he joined Central Motion Picture Corporation and served as story editor, manager, film editor, associate producer and director, then he went on to set the record of winning Golden Horse Awards for Best Director two years in a row. Pai is best known for Lonely Seventeen, The Bride and I, Accidental Trio, Home, Sweet Home, Good Bye! Darling and The Last Night of Madam Chin. Pai died of a heart attack in 1997.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY
 
1968 – Lonely Seventeen

1969 – The Bride and I

1969 – Accidental Trio

1970 – Home, Sweet Home

1970 – Good Bye! Darling

1984 – The Last Night of Madam Chin

1990 – Forbidden Imperial Tales