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  • Japan Premiere

Special Programs < Taiwan: Movies on the Move 2022 >

Increasing Echo

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Director: CHIENN Hsiang (錢翔)

2021|Taiwan|85min|Language: Chinese|Subtitles: English, Japanese

Date Time Venue
3/17 Thu 21:30 Umeda Burg 7: Theater7
3/20 Sun 12:30 Cine Libre Umeda 4
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Starring
CHEN Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪)
CHEN Yi-wen (陳以文)
HUANG Rou-ming (黃柔閩)
Synopsis

Many years may have passed but the damage caused to the marriage of Mr. YAN (CHEN Yi-wen) and Mrs. YAN (CHEN Shiang-chyi) by the husband’s infidelity has remained and the two act out a relationship defined by distance and frustration. Even on the eve of their son’s wedding, the two barely interact. When Mrs. YAN receives a call informing her that her husband’s former mistress suffers from dementia and lives in a nursing home, her pent up grievances finally start to uncoil. Her first step is to take her husband to see the mistress as revenge but afterwards, in his own act of defiance, Mr. YAN runs away leaving his wife to track him down to try and restore some order.

Scenes from a hollowed-out marriage play out in director CHIENN’s cold-fury of a drama where subtle imagery and a pair of powerful subtle performances show the pain and anxiety caused by the unfaithfulness and unexplored resentments of the central couple.

[Jason MAHER]

Director's Message

I have always believed monogamy would eventually disappear.

On May 29, 2020, Taiwan abolished the adultery statutes from criminal law. This had been one of the oldest laws. Now extramarital sex is no longer considered a crime. This is a belated progress, in my opinion, and the world is slowly changing towards a more humane direction.

Humans, being animals, have natural behaviors. When animals are restricted, they respond with pain and anxiety. We are one of the very few in natures that set our own rules to limit the desires.

As long as the corps exists, the animal instinct acts out within, continuously. With the differences between sexes and the individual struggle between the soul and the body, in marriage, we caused each other mental cuts and bruises. And, how long should we keep on remaining in this ancient system?

I, then, made this movie as a witness of the ancient customs in the modern society.