Shin Su Yi Tung Kou Yi Tung
Taiwan,
2003, 103 min
Shown in 2004
CREDITS
- dir
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Yang Li-chou, Michelle Chu
- prod
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Michelle Chu
- cam
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Yang Li-chou, Michelle Chu
- editor
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Yang Li-chou, Michelle Chu, Yuki Chu
- mus
-
Wen Tzu-chieh
- source
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Public Television Service Foundation, No. 70, Lane 75, Kang Ning Rd, Section 3, 104 Taipei, Taiwan. FAX: 886-2-2633-8050. EMAIL: prg1113@mail.pts.org.tw.
- premiere
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International Premiere
-
FILM POSTER
-
COMMENTS
Yang Li-chou, Michelle Chu in person.
OTHER
In their first feature-length effort, Taiwanese directors Michelle Chu and Yang Li-chou have made a significant contribution to the world of documentary filmmaking with this intimate portrait of Taiwanese immigrants living in the seedy Tokyo neighborhood of Shinjuku East. They spent three years filming several expatriates, most of them women who left Taiwan in the early ’80s when jobs were scarce at home. All ended up working menial jobs, as barmaids and even sex workers. And even though a few found wealth, they all continue to live in the margins of Japanese society. The filmmakers remain invisible behind their camera as they follow these people going about their daily lives, and they remain silent as the camera records the stories these people have to tell. These conversations are riveting not only because of what they reveal about these immigrants’ struggles, but also because of how candid and unforced they feel. Powerful scenes unfold without design, full of funny and heartwarming moments, frank confessions and poignant revelations. The result is a film that resonates with universal truths about ethnicity, cultural ties, the power of money and the struggles that all immigrants face in this era of globalization.
—Beverly Berning
FACTOID #4
2006 New Italian Cinema tributee Marco Belocchio’s debut film Fists in the Pocket screened at the Tenth San Francisco International Film Festival in 1966.
