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). |