Chou is a bit of an asshole. His habits include squatting, hanging out on the street, and teasing his old pal Deng. In his eyes, this is his world. One day, he finds out there are still some tragedies that he cannot handle.
Ray and Dio, father and son, work the day and night shifts respectively. Both reticent and emotionless, they keep some distance between them due to family issues and generation gaps. On Tomb Sweeping Day, Ray gets lost in the columbarium since no one told him where their ancestors' urns are placed. When Dio sees his miserable father from behind, he realises how useless his father is...
This is a story of reminiscence, remembering my long-deceased Grandpa. To remember is to transcend, therefore it’s a story of time and space, overlapped and intertwined. It’s also a quest of love and work, a spiritual and emotional journey; and through which values are re-examined and life reaffirmed.
A heartfelt piece that tells the stories of Taipei streets, people and communities. From ten directors across the globe, creating ten unique stories of Taipei, through various backgrounds, delivering the same heartfelt message.
Within the walls of the former Green Island prison, political detainee A-Kuen, tells the stories of imprisonment and persecution happened in the 1950s in Taiwan. Among fellow inmates, frozen in time, he recounts his own experiences and those of his friend, A-Ching, who never made it out. Experience the time and place, and the waiting, in hope, for a chance to keep the stories alive.
Miao hadn’t been living with her father; she kept good care of his car. One night with a sudden rain, her father came to visit and had dinner with her. After waking up the next morning, Miao realized it had been only a dream out of her longing for her father.
Two years post heart transplant, Ah Xun remains unable to shake off the gloom cast over his renewed life. First, there is a house fire; then, an unprecedented pandemic breaks out. Retreating to his grandfather’s home, Ah Xun finds himself persistently haunted by a string of unfortunate events. He is faced with an ex lover’s return, an encounter with the mixed-race sibling neighbours, the harrowing news of his mother’s cancer, his sister’s nervous breakdown, a friend’s drug issues, and now, the news of his grandfather testing positive for the new disease.
Lin Hsiao-yang tries to keep her family together while working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken and going to night school. With no mother and her father currently working out of town, it is up to Lin Hsiao-yang to take care of her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.
A-Guo and A-Dou are two teenagers living in an industrial town in Taiwan, who fight, loaf, and cause trouble all day and hang out with Jie, a young gangster. When Jie's gangland patron is gunned down, the trio set out to revenge the killing. As a result, the two teens are forced into hiding.
In 2006, Detective Chang leads a police investigation into a murder committed in a public marketplace. Chang discovers the victim's father has ties to several other families with dead or missing members, and a grim espionage case buried for 50 years in Taiwan's past. Meanwhile, the kidnapped Mr. Hsu is interrogated by a mysterious mastermind. As the truth emerges, the embers of history become a deadly wildfire.
A story of uprooted trees and displaced people finding ways to heal.
The work connects Taiwan’s first lost film from 1907 with today’s film industry struggles, exploring how history is remembered and forgotten. Through exploring this long history, the work shows a constant but hard-to-reach yearning for progress and understanding. In his films, Yao-Yi Wang blends real and imagined stories to show how people keep longing for progress, even when life feels stuck or incomplete.