WINDS OF SEPTEMBER    SYNOPSIS    CREW & CAST    STATEMENT    AWARDS    TRAILER    BLOG

PRODUCTION YEAR：2007~2008

RELEASE：2008

1996, during the time of the tragic Taiwan baseball scandal, the story follows Yen and Tang and their gang of friends through the last year of their high school life. From chasing girls after school, midnight skinny dipping at the school pool to supporting their favorite baseball team, the China Times Eagles, they did everything together, with Yen being their leader.
One night, because of an accident and the carelessness of the other boys, Yen falls into a coma and everything starts falling apart. With guilt hovering over the other boys, conflicts surface, but Yen is not there to resolve them. Tang, not wanting to lose another friend, tries his best to become Yen, but to no avail, it only resulted in more aggression and hatred. Like the scandalous China Times Eagles' final fate, their friendship ended, never to return.
On the day of graduation, Tang chooses not to attend the ceremony, but to fulfill the promise he made with Yen, which is to go down south together to seek out their Baseball hero. Upon reaching the baseball field, he finds the place empty. Empty as it is, Tang still finds the answer he came looking for...

CREW & CAST：

[ CREW ]

Producers: ERIC TSANG, YEH JUFENG

Associate Producers: CHO LI, GARY TSANG

Production Coordinator: HUANG JUO-HSUAN

Screenwriters: HENRY TSAI, TOM SHU-YU LIN

Director of Photography: FISHER YU

Gaffer: HARKER CHU

Production Designer: LEE TIEN-CHUE

Costume Designer: SUN HUI-MEI

Editor: CHEN HSIAO-DONG

Sound: CHOU CHENG, FRANK CHENG

Music: BLAIRE KO

[ CAST ]

RHYDIAN VAUGHAN as Yen

CHANG CHIEH as Tang

JENNIFER CHU as Yun

WANG BO-CHIEH as Hsing

LIN CHI-TAI as Chao

SHENG WEI-NIAN as Bo-chu

CHIOU YI-CHENG as Sheng

CHI PEI-HUI as Pei-pei

LEE YUE-CHENG as Han

ERIC TSANG as Yen's Father

LU YI-CHING as School drillmaster

[ DIRECTOR ]

TOM SHU-YU LIN

Born in 1976, earned his BFA in film from Shih-Hsin University and his MFA in film from California Institute of the Arts. Tom is one of the few promising new directors emerging from Taiwan.
Since he lived in the Unites States when he was a child, he grew up learning both Chinese and English, giving him the ability to communicate fluently in both languages. His films all carry a distinctive mix of cultural backgrounds.
His works are often filled with dramatic tension, yet within the story, explores the most basic problems of humanity, creating believable characters that touch the heart.

DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT：

When one reaches a certain age, facing the harsh reality and the pressures of society, one starts looking back to the best of times. And usually, those best of times are the pure and innocent days of growing up; we call it youth-hood. Everyone has a memory of youth-hood, and my memories belong with the gang of boys I called friends, back in high school.
Honor and loyalty among high school friends are a great deal of importance to me; and for me, what defines a gang is, in not just one or two, but a whole bunch of boys, gathered together. When a high school boy lacks recognition of himself, often, he needs a gang to belong to, and it is the group that defines him. When the group is scattered, he is forced to face himself, to recognize who he really is. What "WINDS OF SEPTEMBER" is aiming to achieve, is to make a manly, but at the same time boyish coming of age tale, a different kind of high school youth film, a cruel and atrocious reality in which the boys must courageously face in order to grow. In the film, there will be warmth, friendship, happiness, and there will be conflicts, jealousy, and betrayal. Yet this is all just a part of youth. In the end, how are the young supposed to face the future, who are they to look up to, and why does innocence have to end?

AWARDS：

*Selected by Hong Kong Int'l Film Festival, 2008.

*Best Film of Asia New Talent Awards of Shanghai Interntaional Film Festival, 2008.

*Jury Special Award, Best New Talent, Best Screenplay, Media Choice Award of Taipei Film Festival, 2008.

*Selected by Toronto Int'l Film Festival, 2008.

*Selected by A WINDOW ON ASIAN CINEMA section, Pusan Int'l Film Festival, 2008.

*Selected by WINDS OF ASIA section, Tokyo Int'l Film Festival, 2008.