What is A City of Sadness's IQ Score?

A City of Sadness has an IQ Score of 168/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient framework, placing it in the Masterclass tier. The score breaks down to 43/50 Cognitive Stimulation, 41/50 Educational Value, and 42/50 Craft & Quality.

Is A City of Sadness educational?

A City of Sadness is strong on educational value, 41/50 on TVI's rubric, which covers academic content, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, life skills, and knowledge transfer.

How does TV Intelligentsia calculate IQ Score?

TV Intelligentsia's IQ Score is calculated as round((Cognitive Stimulation × 0.4 + Educational Value × 0.35 + Craft & Quality × 0.25) × 4), scoring titles from 0 to 200 across five tiers: Masterclass (≥160), Stimulating (≥130), Competent (≥100), Passive (≥70), and Numbing (<70). The framework is published at tvintelligentsia.com/methodology/.

A City of Sadness , IQ Score 168/200

A City of Sadness has an IQ Score of 168/200 on TV Intelligentsia's Intelligence Quotient rubric, placing it in the Masterclass tier.

By Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH·Updated 2026-06-17·Methodology

dramahistoricalinternational

168/ 200

Masterclass

Measurably increases domain knowledge or cognitive capacity

Score Breakdown

Cognitive Stimulation/50

Educational Value/50

Craft & Quality/50

IQ = round((Cognitive × 0.4 + Educational × 0.35 + Craft × 0.25) × 4) · How we score →

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Why you should trust this score

Scored under Jordan Robinson, MD, MPH

Physician and founding editor. Maintains the adult catalog against the published rubric and reviews the rubric application.

Methodology

Published rubric, v1.2

Formula

round(C × 0.40 + E × 0.35 + Q × 0.25) × 4

Database scale

2,338 titles, version-controlled

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The TVI Take

Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1989 Venice Golden Lion-winning film, the canonical Taiwanese-cinema entry on the February 28 Incident (the 1947 massacre of Taiwanese civilians by the Kuomintang). The structural commitment to letting period-specific Taiwanese-political cognitive material render postwar-Taiwanese-identity inquiry, at scale Taiwanese cinema had not previously sustained, established Hou as a major international auteur.

Where to Watch

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