Chang Tso-chi

Happy Valentine’s

On Valentine’s Day, two long-time girlfriends meet in a cafe. One of them dominates the conversation as the other silently listens. As we learn about their stories, their joys and sorrows, tension slowly escalates between the young women, until the truth comes out in the end. Who has the upper hand in this female friendship? Adapted from Swedish playwright August STRINDBERG’s 1889 one-act play The Stronger (Den starkare), the short explores the age-old theme of female agency in contemporary Taiwan, accompanied by Valentine vignettes of the other young people in the cafe.

Think of You

In Minnan, pineapple rhymes with ‘luck’ and is an auspicious symbol. Carrying a pineapple with him, a young man travels with his mentally handicapped younger brother from their hometown in the provinces to Taipei, where a relative works in a factory. There the brothers witness a scene of labour dispute. Will the pineapple bring them luck after all? After scripting Love Is a Gun (2023), winner of the Lion of the Future award at the Venice International Film Festival 2023, LIN Cheng-hsun presents this new short, a dramatisation of brotherly affection, through a sophisticated command of cinematic and narrative devices.

Between Brothers

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Luo’s elder brother has been staying with him, who finds the arrangement increasingly irritating. When Luo’s brother unknowingly ruins his carefully prepared dinner for a date, long-held grudges come to the surface and the brothers enter into a big fight. Despite Luo’s good intentions, it looks like the dinner date is going to fail, and as his brother intervenes to save the day, the two talk again. The nuanced short is highlighted by a remarkable performance and a story that flows effortlessly with affecting emotions.

Goodbye Again

In Goodbye Again, a mother has to deal with one of the most heartbreaking events as a parent: saving a drug addict child. Coming home for dinner and facing her demure mother, the agitated daughter alternates between derisive manipulation and loving care, oblivious to the uncommonly preoccupied and nervous mother who nibbles at the bitter melon without a word of reproach. Filled with tension and deceptively simple, the very short drama is a powerful portrayal of mother-daughter dynamics in a modern single-parent Chinese family.

PADA

After school, Xiao-Ci wants to talk to her mother about what happened in school today, but her mother was too busy looking for the evidence to prove Xiao-Ci ’s father is still smoking secretly. Xiao-Ci’s mother was sure that, last night, she heard the sound of a lighter: “Pada!”