From an outsider’s perspective, things are quite grim for the Chen family. Set in perpetually-rainy rural Yilan County near the beach, this subdued drama revolves around youngest son A-liang (Tung Liang-yu, 董亮宇), who performs odd jobs and devotes himself to taking care of his mentally disabled elder brother A-ting (Chung Shang-ting, 鍾尚庭). He’s also a talented artist whose bedroom walls are plastered with his drawings.
Meanwhile, eldest son A-wei (Wu Wei-han, 吳威翰) engages in questionable activities and rarely comes home, and the stern, silent yet sensitive father A-ming (Chen Ming, 陳銘) tries his best to keep the family afloat while his wife is in the hospital.
The natural beauty of their surroundings is mostly littered with trash, and A-liang and A-ting spend their days playing baseball among the debris, catching fish in the dirty pond and scavenging junk washed up on the beach.
Photo courtesy of Golden Horse Film Festival
But somehow, their situation does not come off as pitiful nor sad. They may not seem to have much to look forward to, but they’re not exactly struggling either. Like his previous film Synapses (那個我最親愛的陌生人, reviewed on Nov. 28, 2019), which deals with dementia and memory loss, director Chang Tso-chi (張作驥) presents the story through extended vignettes of the family’s daily interactions. Flotsam and Jetsam (夏日天空的那匹紅馬) goes more into detail with their mundane activities and has even less of a clear plot, but what’s different is that it doesn’t dwell on hopelessness and despair. It’s even heart-warming at times.
Nothing dramatic happens to the family and the characters don’t express themselves very well, if at all, but it’s clear that they care deeply about each other. The father and two younger sons eat dinner together every day, and while the conversation mostly consists of things like “eat more vegetables, don’t just eat meat” and “don’t drink too much alcohol,” their bonds are evident. Even the wayward eldest son tries to provide for them and shows up when it’s time to visit the bedridden mother.
One of the more poignant scenes is when A-zhen (Fox Lee, 李亞臻), a young woman who barges into their lives, attends A-ting’s birthday party and expresses her envy for what the family has. And the brief conversation with A-liang that ensues is one of the very few moments where he talks about how he really feels. A-ting gets drunk that night and poops his pants, and while A-liang scolds him and grumbles, he still cleans up after his brother and they head out together again the following day, with A-ting clutching onto the back of A-liang’s shirt.
Photo courtesy of Golden Horse Film Festival
A-zhen’s side-story of longing and searching provides some drama and distraction from the monotony of the all-male household, and her animated, gangster-ish ex-boyfriend (Huang Huai-te, 黃懷德), who raps at a local night market, provides absurdist comedic relief. Chang could have expanded more on A-zhen’s background, as there are several scenes that are confusing and unclear. It would also give a bit more color (literally, as she wears bright clothes compared to the others) to the story.
While many Taiwanese films of this genre focus on family conflict and dysfunction, there’s little bitterness or complaints (although a lot of nagging) in Flotsam and Jetsam. The central motif in the film, as the Chinese title indicates, is a giant inflatable red horse, and it seems to represent the bit of hope that the characters manage to hold on to, no matter how hard things get.
It’s not the easiest film to watch as one constantly wonders if the plot is going anywhere, and many of the subtle details only sink in afterward. But it’s beautifully shot (even the garbage-filled scenes are somehow poetic) and edited, with a fitting emotional soundtrack that amplifies the mood.
Photo courtesy of Golden Horse Film Festival
March 24 to March 30 When Yang Bing-yi (楊秉彝) needed a name for his new cooking oil shop in 1958, he first thought of honoring his previous employer, Heng Tai Fung (恆泰豐). The owner, Wang Yi-fu (王伊夫), had taken care of him over the previous 10 years, shortly after the native of Shanxi Province arrived in Taiwan in 1948 as a penniless 21 year old. His oil supplier was called Din Mei (鼎美), so he simply combined the names. Over the next decade, Yang and his wife Lai Pen-mei (賴盆妹) built up a booming business delivering oil to shops and
Indigenous Truku doctor Yuci (Bokeh Kosang), who resents his father for forcing him to learn their traditional way of life, clashes head to head in this film with his younger brother Siring (Umin Boya), who just wants to live off the land like his ancestors did. Hunter Brothers (獵人兄弟) opens with Yuci as the man of the hour as the village celebrates him getting into medical school, but then his father (Nolay Piho) wakes the brothers up in the middle of the night to go hunting. Siring is eager, but Yuci isn’t. Their mother (Ibix Buyang) begs her husband to let
In late December 1959, Taiwan dispatched a technical mission to the Republic of Vietnam. Comprising agriculturalists and fisheries experts, the team represented Taiwan’s foray into official development assistance (ODA), marking its transition from recipient to donor nation. For more than a decade prior — and indeed, far longer during Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule on the “mainland” — the Republic of China (ROC) had received ODA from the US, through agencies such as the International Cooperation Administration, a predecessor to the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). More than a third of domestic investment came via such sources between 1951
For the past century, Changhua has existed in Taichung’s shadow. These days, Changhua City has a population of 223,000, compared to well over two million for the urban core of Taichung. For most of the 1684-1895 period, when Taiwan belonged to the Qing Empire, the position was reversed. Changhua County covered much of what’s now Taichung and even part of modern-day Miaoli County. This prominence is why the county seat has one of Taiwan’s most impressive Confucius temples (founded in 1726) and appeals strongly to history enthusiasts. This article looks at a trio of shrines in Changhua City that few sightseers visit.
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