# The Sandwich Man (儿子的大玩偶)
**The Sandwich Man** (兒子的大玩偶) is a 1983 Taiwanese omnibus film produced by Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), in which three directors, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wan Jen, and Tseng Chuang-hsiang, each adapt a short story by the Nativist writer [Huang Chun-ming](https://www.edgepedia.org/huang-chun-ming) into a portrait of working-class life in 1960s Taiwan.[1](https://license.movie.com.tw/movie/detail?id=92) • [2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) It is widely regarded as a founding work of the Taiwan New Cinema movement.[3](https://www.merit-times.com.tw/NewsPage.aspx?unid=371222)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title | 兒子的大玩偶 (Erzi de da wan'ou) |
| Year and country | Taiwan, 1983; produced by Central Motion Picture Corporation[1](https://license.movie.com.tw/movie/detail?id=92) |
| Directors | Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wan Jen, and Tseng Chuang-hsiang[1](https://license.movie.com.tw/movie/detail?id=92) |
| Screenplay | Wu Nien-jen, adapted from three short stories by Huang Chun-ming[4](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2006-12-26/16371387142.html) |
| Three segments | "The Sandwich Man" (Hou), "Vicki's Hat" (Tseng), "The Taste of Apples" (Wan)[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) |
| Languages | Mandarin and Taiwanese[5](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-sandwich-man-2014-10/1) |
| Historical standing | Considered the opening work of the Taiwan New Cinema[3](https://www.merit-times.com.tw/NewsPage.aspx?unid=371222) |
## Spoilers
### The three segments
**"The Sandwich Man" (兒子的大玩偶), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien.** Set in the 1960s, the opening segment follows Kun-shu, played by Chen Po-cheng (阿西), a young father who proposes to a theater owner that he advertise films in the Japanese "sandwich man" style, wearing clown makeup and carrying advertising boards through the streets. He works from dawn to dusk for his wife and infant son while enduring mockery from strangers and relatives. In the final scene he discovers that his son, who has only ever seen him in clown makeup, no longer recognizes his bare face, and he repaints it; the film freezes on his embarrassed smile.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) The segment opens with a fixed long shot of the costumed Kun-shu walking toward the camera from far down a road in Zhuqi, Hsinchu, a shot often cited as a manifesto of the New Cinema style, in which the viewer watches from a distance rather than being drawn into the drama.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432)
**"Vicki's Hat" (小琪的那頂帽子), directed by Tseng Chuang-hsiang.** A recently discharged young salesman, Wu-hsiung, travels to the countryside with his supervisor selling Japanese pressure cookers. He is curious about a schoolgirl, Vicki, who always wears a hat; when he finally lifts it, he finds it hides a scar on her head. At the same time his supervisor is severely injured when a pressure cooker explodes during a demonstration. The film changes the story's ending: Wu-hsiung tears up the Japanese pressure-cooker posters and throws them into the sea, an ending read as an accusation of Japanese economic dominance, though it reduces the psychological depth of Huang's original.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432)
**"The Taste of Apples" (蘋果的滋味), directed by Wan Jen.** A farmer, Ah-fa, living in a run-down squatter settlement is struck by the car of an American colonel stationed in Taiwan. His impoverished family receives a large compensation payment and the promise that his mute daughter will attend school in the United States, and the family rejoices in the American military hospital. The segment uses irony to depict the hardship of ordinary Taiwanese in the 1960s and the country's dependent position under American military and cultural influence; Wan shot the hospital scenes overexposed so they appear immaculately bright, matching the family's sense of America as heaven.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432)
## Production background
CMPC made the film during the early-1980s downturn in Taiwanese commercial cinema. To reduce risk, it was produced as a low-cost collection of three short films, planned by Hsiao Yeh and Wu Nien-jen, with the established Hou Hsiao-hsien paired with two first-time directors, Wan Jen and Tseng Chuang-hsiang.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) It was the second of two portmanteau films CMPC produced under its newcomer policy in the early 1980s, following *In Our Time* (1982).[5](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-sandwich-man-2014-10/1) • [6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2015/films/the-sandwich-man) The credited crew included cinematographer [Chen Kun](https://www.edgepedia.org/chen-kun)-hou, editor Liao Ching-sung, and producer Ming Ji, the CMPC general manager who drove the studio's reform program.[4](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2006-12-26/16371387142.html) • [7](https://map.tfam.museum/storage/files/shares/MA/MA198/MA0198_09.pdf)
The source stories come from Huang Chun-ming, a leading figure of 1970s Nativist (鄉土) literature whose fiction described Taiwanese society during its transition from an agricultural to an industrial economy.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) • [8](https://ireading.tp.edu.tw/plugin/yingguang/monograph.php?article_id=10&fun=page&id=4) The title story was first published in 1968 in the journal *Literary Quarterly* (文學季刊).[8](https://ireading.tp.edu.tw/plugin/yingguang/monograph.php?article_id=10&fun=page&id=4)
## The Apple Peeling Incident
Before the film's release, conservative critics writing under the name of the China Film Critics Association sent anonymous letters to the Kuomintang's cultural affairs office, objecting that the film's images of poverty and squatter housing would damage Taiwan's international image. CMPC, a party-owned enterprise, moved to cut Wan Jen's segment substantially without the filmmakers' consent.[9](https://kfa.kcg.gov.tw/tw/activity-content/0A16966527e4) On 15 August 1983, still under martial law, the reporter Yang Shih-chi exposed the cuts on the front page of the *United Daily News* entertainment section under headlines including "The son almost loses his doll"; coverage in the *China Times* followed, with a full-page special on the film featuring critics such as Chan Hung-chih.[10](https://www.twreporter.org/a/saturday-features-film-chen-yu-hang-interview) The affair, known as the "Apple Peeling Incident" (削蘋果事件), drew public support for creative freedom from the literary and media worlds and amplified the film's publicity.[11](https://www.wowscreen.com.tw/goods.php?goods_id=2086) Harvard Film Archive notes that pressure by conservative forces to have the film re-edited was successfully resisted.[5](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-sandwich-man-2014-10/1)
## Reception and significance
The film was a box-office success. Hou Hsiao-hsien later recalled that its trailer ran for a month at the China Theatre while *Dragon Lord* was playing, that the film's box office was very good, and that New Cinema thereby gained a market footing and quickly became mainstream.[12](https://www.ncafroc.org.tw/artsaward/winnerDetail%401242) At the 1983 Golden Horse Awards the film received nominations for Best Supporting Actor, Child Actor, and Original Song.[13](https://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/event/film-screening-sandwich-manerzidedawanou)
Its standing rests on style as much as subject. Working with limited resources, including single-camera shooting and no stars, the directors turned constraint into a fresh realist style focused on everyday lives and local experience, in contrast to the genre conventions of commercial Taiwanese filmmaking.[2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) • [14](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/focus-on-the-taiwan-new-wave/the-sandwich-man/) The film is routinely named as the start of the Taiwan New Cinema: a 2016 Taiwan Film Institute publication calls it the film generally recognized as the beginning of the movement, alongside Hou's *The Boys from Fengkuei* and Edward Yang's *That Day, on the Beach* in the same year.[15](https://www.tfai.org.tw/Content/TFI/PublicInfo/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E5%B9%B4%E9%91%912016%E5%B9%B4.pdf) In 2013, thirty years after release, [Academia Sinica](https://www.edgepedia.org/academia-sinica), National Central University, and Hong Kong Baptist University jointly held the international conference "History, Literature and Authorship: Rethinking Taiwan New Cinema" to reassess the movement it began.[3](https://www.merit-times.com.tw/NewsPage.aspx?unid=371222) A digitally restored version screened at the 2013 Tokyo International Film Festival and continues to circulate internationally.[16](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2026-program/the-sandwich-man)
Reported runtimes differ among catalogs: 100 minutes (Harvard Film Archive, USC), 103 minutes (IFFR), 104 minutes (CMPC's restoration release), 105 minutes (Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute teaching materials), and 108 minutes (CMPC's licensing page).[5](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-sandwich-man-2014-10/1) • [6](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2015/films/the-sandwich-man) • [17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_SSJmU0F64) • [2](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432) • [1](https://license.movie.com.tw/movie/detail?id=92)
## References
1. [兒子的大玩偶 The Sandwich Man, 中影片庫, 中影](https://license.movie.com.tw/movie/detail?id=92)
2. [《兒子的大玩偶》The Sandwich Man, 認識電影 (Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute)](https://edumovie-tfai.org.tw/article/content/432)
3. [導演萬仁 開創台灣寫實電影風潮 回顧真實生活, 人間福報](https://www.merit-times.com.tw/NewsPage.aspx?unid=371222)
4. [台湾新浪潮导演侯孝贤作品年表, 新浪娱乐](https://ent.sina.com.cn/m/2006-12-26/16371387142.html)
5. [The Sandwich Man, Harvard Film Archive](https://harvardfilmarchive.org/calendar/the-sandwich-man-2014-10/1)
6. [The Sandwich Man, International Film Festival Rotterdam 2015](https://iffr.com/en/iffr/2015/films/the-sandwich-man)
7. [啟蒙・八○ The Enlightening Eighties, 臺北市立美術館](https://map.tfam.museum/storage/files/shares/MA/MA198/MA0198_09.pdf)
8. [115年度臺北市國中〖以書映光〗](https://ireading.tp.edu.tw/plugin/yingguang/monograph.php?article_id=10&fun=page&id=4)
9. [映後座談｜兒子的大玩偶, 高雄市電影館](https://kfa.kcg.gov.tw/tw/activity-content/0A16966527e4)
10. [我不是「削蘋果」烈士：成為出版人之前的電影事──專訪作家陳雨航, 報導者](https://www.twreporter.org/a/saturday-features-film-chen-yu-hang-interview)
11. [台灣新電影三十年, WOW!SCREEN 電影雜誌](https://www.wowscreen.com.tw/goods.php?goods_id=2086)
12. [國家文藝獎第9屆電影導演得主：侯孝賢, 國家文藝獎](https://www.ncafroc.org.tw/artsaward/winnerDetail%401242)
13. [Film Screening | The Sandwich Man, ANU College of Asia & the Pacific](https://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/event/film-screening-sandwich-manerzidedawanou)
14. [The Sandwich Man (1983), ACMI](https://www.acmi.net.au/whats-on/focus-on-the-taiwan-new-wave/the-sandwich-man/)
15. [台灣電影年鑑 2016, 國家電影中心](https://www.tfai.org.tw/Content/TFI/PublicInfo/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E9%9B%BB%E5%BD%B1%E5%B9%B4%E9%91%912016%E5%B9%B4.pdf)
16. [THE SANDWICH MAN《兒子的大玩偶》, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2026-program/the-sandwich-man)
17. [台灣新電影浪潮｜《兒子的大玩偶》數位修復發行, 中影國際 CMPC (YouTube)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_SSJmU0F64)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1980s › Released 1980 to 1985*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license