A road movie with a difference
According to the Taipei TimesThe Road in the Air (單車上路) is Taiwan's first road movie. However, it is conceived in a manner different from the typical road movie. On an island where it is possible to drive anywhere in a day, it has to be. Instead of driving a car the movie's stars ride bicycles. This creates an ideal contraction of time and space for the movie to take place in.
The movie was shot on the road between Su'ao and Hualian. The Suhua Highway is a spectacular coastal road cut into the cliffs. The scenery is stunning and the film highlights this to great effect. You can see some great pictures of it on Michael Turton's web page of photos of the Suhua Highway.
I thought the performance of the actors was a bit patchy, especially at the start, although the two lead actors seemed to gain in confidence as the film progressed. One of the actors is a Canadian woman who speaks Mandarin. When she first appears in the film she says, "I can speak a little Mandarin", but it soon becomes apparent she can speak more than a little.
The film deals with people trying to escape from and come to terms with terrible things that have happened in the past. While the back stories of the three leading Taiwanese characters are thoroughly explained, the Canadian woman is a little mysterious. The fact that she only spoke Mandarin during the film shows that she wasn't just a token foreigner but I didn't understand exactly what happened to her. I saw this movie without English subtitles. And although I could follow most of the dialogue, I might have missed a few key points that explained what happened better.
The film was enjoyable to watch and I always like seeing Taiwan depicted on film. However, it didn't quite have what it takes to be a great film or a commercial success.
Update: There is an article about the film in the Taiwan News: Local film highlights craziness of city life (added 13 November 2006)
*****
While on the topic of movies I should mention that the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展) started on Friday and runs until the 24th of November. Check the links below for more details.
Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival – official website
Giddyap, it's Golden Horse time – Taipei Times article
Made in Taiwan – Taipei Times article
Movie review: Island Etude
Bikes on the road
Links 17 December 2007
Cycling the Tucheng loop
Action for climate change in Taipei
Posted: November 12th, 2006 under Cycling, Movies, Taiwan.
Tags: movie review
Comments
Pingback from David on Formosa » Bikes on the road
Time 23 April 2007 at 2:48 pm
[...] The event finished at the Outdoor Cinema Park in Ximending where they were going to screen the film, The Road in the Air (單車上路), which I saw last year. The Director of the film Li Zhi-qiang (李志薔) spoke briefly about his reasons for making the film. The main one was as a form of opposition to the proposed Suhua Freeway. [...]
Pingback from David on Formosa » Movie review: Island Etude
Time 30 April 2007 at 10:44 pm
[...] The story starts out with Ming-hsiang travelling along the east coast which was also the backdrop for The Road in the Air (單車上路), another movie about cycling released last year which I reviewed here. [...]
Pingback from David on Formosa » Cycling: from the marginal to the mainstream
Time 17 June 2007 at 9:40 pm
[...] Two movies about cycling have been made in Taiwan in the past year: Island Etude and The Road in the Air. One might be cynical about the motivations for Ma Ying-jeou's bike ride from the southern to the northern end of Taiwan, but it shows cycling is something that resonates with the public. [...]
Comment from Tiffany
Time 12 November 2006 at 10:24 pm
It seems to be an interesting movie, hope I will have chance to see it!!