Archive of films Somewhere over the Dreamland / Mon huan bu luo

Taiwan
2002, 93 min

Section: Another View
Year: 2003

Watan, a native of Taiwan, returns to the city. There he retraces events which happened in his youth and recalls the woman he loved. His dream of a millet field comes to life in the love story of a girl who relates it over the phone to young Xiao Mo.

Synopsis

Watan, part of the Atayal tribe living in Taiwan, gets a letter. The wallet he lost ten years ago has been found in a block of concrete. In addition to his ID, it also contains a photograph of the wife who left him. Watan heads to the city. Upon returning to places where he was once happy, he recalls a dream about a field of millet. As a young man Xiao Mo had a day job at a Japanese restaurant. He lived in lonely decadence and only he knew what he had lost. One night a girl called him and whispered a love story about a field of millet....“I once went to a tribal village high on the cliff to interview an old man”, says the director. “I listened to him singing and praising the gorgeous view of the field of millet. I set out in search of it. Even though they would tell me that the field was somewhere out there, I never found it. So I dreamed about how it might look in the mountains, caressed by the winds, day and night, from sunrise to sunset. That seemed lonely, I thought, and this was the initiative driving me to shoot the film”.

About the director

Cheng Wen-tang was born in northeast Taiwan and grew up as a typical villager. At age 19 he left to study drama at university and decided to make a career for himself in film. After graduating in 1982, he began working as a screenwriter and assistant director, and shot a series of ethnographic documentaries on video about the lives of natives standing outside the mainstream interest of Taiwanese society. His short Postcard received a special award at the Taipei festival in 1999, and was warmly received at film festivals in Korea, Singapore and Melbourne. A year later he shot Vanity Fair of Tan-Sui for television. His feature debut Somewhere over the Dreamland, awarded Best Feature Debut at the Venice IFF, also took the Golden Horse for Taiwan’s Best Film of 2002.

Contacts

Good Film Co.
3A, No. 9, San Min Road, 105, Taipei
Taiwan
Tel: +886 2 275 316 35
Fax: +886 2 276 051 88
E-mail: [email protected]

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About the film

Color, 35 mm

Section:	Another View

Director:	Cheng Wen-tang
Screenplay:	Cheng Wen-tang, Cheng Ching-feng
Dir. of Photography:	Lin Cheng-ying
Music:	Bu Lang Yu Gan
Editor:	Liao Ching-sung, Hsiao Ju-kuan
Producer:	Liao Ching-sung
Production:	Green Light Film Ltd.
Cast:	Yu Lao Yu Gan, Muo Tsi-yi, Wu Yi-ting
Contact:	Good Film Co.