Taiwan Docs

1+1+363=365

1= The game has finished. The crowed thunders out applause. The young ball players on the field smile, yell in excitement, and run about. Its fall of 1998 in Manterey and the players' last game.

1= They are met at the airport by all sorts of media, dazzling lights, and a showy welcome parade. People pack the streets to welcome them.

363= Besides all the grueling practice, there are only more drills. This is a baseball player's life. This is their life After Championship.

The teens count their fingers in earnest, counting out the hours that they've practiced each day. They have some camplaints as to their life with no vacation, but it is all for the championship. They don't need to be too serious about school, just focus on practicing their game. They neglect all their summer homework. After all they can just become coaches if they don't become national champions. If not that, then there is always framing houses.

The naturally unassuming Peinan youths have crazy, subversive ideas and cool eyes, but we still fear their beauty may disappear. Originally they should be called names garnered from the land or the sea. Being called "champions" is perhaps too heavy.

In the end the director asks where, if we came back to find the team after ten years, would they be? The movie asks if there isn't a hard price paid by the youths that struggle for victory trophies. It is a projection of so many Taiwanese aboriginal youths growing up.

Tseng Wen-chen©All Rights Reserved.