japanese
New Asian Currents [TAIWAN]

Chichi, the Monster


- TAIWAN / 2000 / Chinese / Color, B&W / Video / 10 min

Director, Photography, Editing, Sound: Lin Tay-jou
Music: Philip Shieh
Animation: Lin Tay-jou, Wendy Chiao
Producer: Wendy Chiao
Source: Lin Tay-jou
8F, 270, Chungshan Rd., Touliu, Yunlin 640 TAIWAN
Phone & Fax: 886-5-5331707
E-mail: lintj@pine.yuntech.edu.tw

Ten days after the devastating Taiwan earthquake on Sept. 21, 1999, four-year-old Rex and his brother, six-year-old Raphael, went to visit their grandparents in Chichi. The sight of the catastrophe has repeatedly appeared in their drawings ever since. With effective use of animation and sound effects, the film brings across the innocent imaginary world of children.



[Director’s Statement] The production of this film was entirely a matter of coincidence. One day in the summer of 1999, I was at my music composer, Philip Shieh’s house while he was working on another film of mine. Whenever I had spare time, I would shoot some footage of his two sons Rex and Raphael while they drew beautiful pictures of their new house, which they would be soon moving into.

When I visited their new home for the first time in 2000, I surprisingly discovered the chaotic scenes appearing in the drawings of the two children, which were so different from those before the Chichi / 921 Earthquake.

The Chichi / 921 Earthquake, registering 7.3 on the Richter scale, happened on September 21st of 1999 in Taiwan and caused the deaths of over 2300 people.

 

- Lin Tay-jou

Born in 1968 in Taiwan. Currently a fulltime instructor at the Visual Communication Design Department, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology in Taiwan. His film and video works have received much recognition both nationally and internationally, and range from experimental, drama, animation to documentary and installation art. Chichi, the Monster is his first documentary made especially for children. Other works include Develop (1990), Afterimage (1994), Landscapes in the Dream (1996), Waves (1997), A Piece of Work for Myself (1999), The Money that Kills (2000) and Blue Plague (2001).


• New Asian Currents | Soshin: In Your Dreams | A True Story about Love | My Migrant Soul | Our Boys | Along the Railway | More than One Is Unhappy | This Winter | Jari Mari: Of Cloth and Other Stories | King of Dreams | My Friend Su | The Performance | My Mother’s Home, Lagoon | Water and Atefeh | Blessed | MAYA | Danchizake (Homemade Sake) | Variant Phases | Doomealee, the Very First Step | Farewell | Pansy and Ivy | Sky-blue Hometown | Koryu: Southern Women, South Korea | News Time | Margin | Sowing Seeds | Chlorine Addiction | Chichi, the Monster | Mixed Fruit Banana Split | Sales | The Falling Kite | March of Time | Once Upon a Time | Hummadruz | Vanished with Water • New Asian Currents Invitation Films | The Musicians | The Eclipse | Life beyond the Noise | “Floating Islands” Series | 03:04 | The Paradise Island Tong-Sha, an Isle like a Crab | West Island | Who Is Fishing® | Silent Delta • Jurors | Sato Makoto | Chalida Uabumrungjit • New Asian Currents Special | Filmmakers Information Center / Searching for New Contexts