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Audio Format: DD 2.0
Video Format: Widescreen 1.85:1 (Anamorphic)
Languages: Mandarin
Subtitles: English, Chinese (T)
Region Code: 3
Year Made: 2007
Running Time: 109
Release Date: 11/26/2007
Taiwan's entry for the foreign-language film Oscar -- after "Lust, Caution" was rejected -- is a strikingly lensed portrait of the island that's "experimental" in the best sense, blurring the line between documentary and fiction with hardly a trace of pretension. On the surface a road movie, following a college student on a round-island bicycle journey, "Island Etude" uses a largely nonpro cast in a series of encounters which touch on aspects of Taiwan's Pacific identity sans sermonizing. Neat fest item could clock up some some mileage on learning channels.
Film is the first directorial outing by d.p. Chen Huai-en, known for his work with Hou Hsiao Hsien on pics like "A City of Sadness" and "Good Men, Good Women." Co-producer Yang Li-yin has also played in several Hou movies, as well as being closely identified with the Taiwan New Wave movement of the '80s.
During a break in his studies, Ming (Tung Ming-hsiang) has decided to cycle from the southern port of Kaohsiung counter-clockwise round Taiwan's coast, with no other reason than to do it (as he tells one person) while he still has the chance. Seven-day journey, paragraphed by time captions and extracts from his journal, takes him up through Hualien on the east coast and then down the west coast. He goes through no cities, and is almost always within sight of the sea.
Vignettes en route include a film crew whose loquacious director (Teng An-ning) is shooting some Fellini-esque fable; a young biker (Yuen-lun) from Canada who's visiting his mom (Chen Hsiu-hui) in the process of divorce; a beautiful Lithuanian model (Ruta Palionyte) who needs help catching a train; a teacher (co-producer Yang) taking early retirement from a primary school; and a bus driver (Wu Nien-chen, a key scripter of the '80s New Wave) taking some oldies on an excursion.
Ming, it turns out, has been almost deaf since childhood and, despite using a hearing aid, speaks with a garbled accent. His closest friend is his guitar, and his personality has an upbeat innocence that makes him a perfect listener as he bounces from one encounter to another.
Encounters touch on a number of aspects of contempo Taiwan society -- children, family, environment, memories, superstition, visual arts
Travelling is always the best way to encounter true stories. Ming-Hsang, a deaf, decided to cycle around Taiwan before graduating from the college. This film, lasting for 100 minutes, documents his trip which lasted 7 days and 6 nights. He camped at the beach of Tai-Ma-Li on the first evening, playing guitar. Although he has hearing problems, he is still very much interested in sounds. The next morning, he followed Tai-11 highway. He met a group of people filming MV at the east coastline. They also film him. The third day, he was on the Su-Hua highway, a highway notoriously difficult to conquer for cyclists. He met a Hungarian girl at Han-Ben railway station. She missed the train to Hua-Lien. He helped her to get on her train by communication with her by pens and papers
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