The film stirred up a great deal of debate when it was released. Yang had described a tumultuous period in Taiwan's history, a period in which the many thousands of people from different backgrounds and different provinces who had retreated to Taiwan with the KMT government were settling in to life here.
這部電影在當時引起相當討論，楊德昌記述了一個錯亂的歷史時空，不同省籍、背景的人士，隨國民政府來到東方小島。