In 1989 he and Chu Tien-wen worked together to write the screenplay for City of Sadness, describing the ups and downs of a Taiwanese family as it experienced the February 28 Incident, and he wrote this line for its poster: "You've never heard this story before, nor have you dared to ask about it."
七十八年他和朱天文合力完成《悲情城市》，一個本省家族經歷「二二八」政治事件的興衰，附贈電影海報文案，「在今天以前，這個故事，你從未聽過，也，不敢講。」