Chinese Version

Heartbreak Island (Taiwan)

animadverting on middle-class life

Director: Hsu Hsiao-ming

Cast: Wei Xiao-hui   Xi Xiang

Footage: 122min

Year: 1995

This Taiwanese romantic drama has political overtones. Lin-lang is a radical political activist who was incarcerated 10 years ago for throwing bombs. In prison, Lin-lang sustains herself by keeping her political passions burning and by remaining devoted to her former lover, Wang Rong, who has since married and owns a successful coffee shop.

Wang began also as a student activist in Taiwan's civil rights movement. In 1979, a bloody battle between government authorities and the activists took place in the southern town of Kaohsiung. There Wang was arrested and was supposed to be executed. Even then Lin-lang was obsessed with him, and to avenge his death, began tossing bombs. Upon her release, Lin-lang goes to look for Wang. However he is not happy to see her and shows no interest in politics or in renewing their relationship. Lin-lang continues trying to recapture those times by looking up old friends and compatriots only to discover that the radicals have settled down to comfortably middle-class lives. In the end, the obsessive woman resorts to kidnapping Wang's baby to get his attention.