Running Time: 56 mins / Production Year: 1999~2000 / Broadcast: PTS Taiwan, March 2000
This documentary is about director Tang’s Tao (Lanyu tribesman) friend, Mamuno. Through Mamuno’s experience of returning to his origin and Tang’s examining of his own life, the film shows how the two people interact and their brotherly caring for each other.
Tang and Mamuno, coming from different backgrounds, share the same passion towards the ocean. We see what Mamuno went through a part of his life as a Tao, and Tang’s intent of finding the origin of his own life. The inseparable relationship between man and nature is also observed.
CREW
Executive Producer: TSAI FANG-JU
Producer: YEH JUFENG
Director: TANG SHIANG-CHU
Cinematographer: TSAI CHENG-TAI
Sound: TANG SHIANG-CHU, TU DUU-CHIH
Editor: CHEN PO-WEN
Music: CHEN CHIEN-NIEN (aka PUR-DUR)
DIR’S STATEMENT
In 1999, I spent eight months in Hong Kong because of work requirement. On Sundays I often walked into the Victoria Park where tens of thousands of foreign laborers had gathered. It was the time and place for them to comfort each other’s souls. In such a city filled with high rise buildings, huge crowds, and loud automobiles, I was overwhelmed by the loneliness of my own. Fortunately, my soul was free – it was taken back to Lanyu (Orchid Island, as called by the tribesmen), on the border of Taiwan, where I could see that beautiful ocean again. And I thought of the man who first brought me to it and called me his brother – my Tao friend, Shi Mamuno.
The first time Mamuno took me into the ocean, he swam in front of me. Although he could only use half of his body, his movement was quite elegant, as if the ocean had become a blue-colored stage for his play. I would never forget what I saw that day; it was a dream-like world, a world without worries from reality. The pleasures I had in the deep water brought back the memories of my childhood, the time I had similar experiences.
Maybe because Mamuno came from a tribe surrounded by the ocean, there was undefeatable fate in his life. He once left his people and homeland, and tried to find another identity in the vanity world of mainland Taiwan. He had failed and was immensely hurt. When he heard the distant calls from the ocean – a part of his tribe’s nature – he finally returned. He gained a second chance for his life.
Living in a big city, I often feel I encounter many difficult situations in my everyday life, very similar to Mamuno’s in a way. Mamuno found and had returned to the origin of his life – the ocean. What about me? As a busy city person, where will my life lead to? While documenting Mamuno’s life, I realize I am also trying to find the significance of my own life.
AWARDS
*Best Documentary Film at the Golden Harvest Awards, 2000.
*Selected for Vancouver Int’l Film Festival, 2000.
*Selected for Taiwan Int’l Documentary Festival, 2000.
*Selected for Hawaii Int’l Film Festival, 2000.
*Selected for Hong Kong Int’l Film Festival, 2001.
*Selected for Hot Docs Canadian Int’l Documentary Festival, 2001.
TRAILER
