We were asked by our Literature teacher to watch a taiwanese film in Buttenbruch Hall. The film was entitled, "Our Island, Our Dreams."
“Our island, our dreams”, reflects the love, dreams and the lifestyle of the people in Kinmen, one of Taiwan’s outlying islands that sits not far off the coast of mainland China.
By just watching the film, I got a glimpse on how rich Kinmen’s culture is. It featured the historic sites and the beautiful places to visit. The style of the houses, the temples, and the beaches flabbergasted me. I also saw one of the main characters making an origami, which is known to be a Japanese art. It made me think that probably, Kinmen was influenced by Japan.
The main characters are Ajin, Xing-jun and Awu. (see photo)
These three are best of friends since childhood. Ajin and Awu fell in love with Xing-jun, but they chose not to reveal their feeling to her so as not to lose their friendship.
Xing-jun’s sister, Da-yue also kept on painting pictures on vases. It depicts that the people in Kinmen were into painting. As for Da-yue’s case, she expresses her feeling through painting. I was really amazed on how great she is in painting. I hope I could paint too.
A-jin, one of the leading men, wanted to go out and explore the world. A-wu, on the other hand, wanted to stay. A-wu, as what I’ve understood in the film, is a tour guide and he’s leading a group (consists of Xing-jun, A-jin and himself) which promotes Kinmen to foreigners. For a person who loves to travel like me, I can relate with A-jin. You can also promote your culture to the people from other countries when you interact with them personally in their native land.
The film also showed how the soldiers made great efforts in winning the hearts of young Kinmen ladies.
I really laughed when a weird soldier made a poem for a female "ice cream" seller. Their "ice cream" before is made of crushed ice and caramel. The poem was excellent. He used metaphors and symbols. I love poems, so I really appreciated the thought that he wrote a poem to express his feelings to a girl. If it was converted into a song, the more I would like it. What he did was really sweet but his weird acts made the whole thing funny.
Some Kinmens girls who had a relationship with soldiers were left by their loved ones. One of them, Amei, even got crazy. Something happened to her child and her husband during the war.
It so happened that Xing-jun fell in love with a soldier (oops, goodbye Ajin and Awu). Xing-jun’s father really opposed the idea of her having a relationship with a soldier because of the fear that Xing-jun can become like Amei. If I were Xing-jun’s dad, I would want to do the same. I can’t afford seeing my daughter suffering because the man that he truly loves left her alone. I would not want to take the risk. But, of course, in the end, it’s my daughter’s decision that would prevail because it’s her own life.
Even though I haven’t watched the first part of the movie, somehow, I’ve watched the most important parts.
