Taiwan Docs

A 30-year-old man, self-destructive and anxious. A 26-year-old friend with a video camera. This is a very personal film about their relationship. The flamboyant man flirts with the camera, while the filmmaker is tormented, forcing himself to go on with the filming. Their sincerity in the face of undefeatable facts is moving. Now, 20 years later, the filmmaker revisits his protagonist and makes another film titled Goodnight & Goodbye.

WU Yao-tung: ‘On Taiwan's National Day in 1997, under the fireworks in Ximenting, I started filming this documentary about the “love and hate” between Tom and me...The filming lasted a whole year. What existed all the time between us was the fight: the fight between the one who filmed and the one who was filmed, the fight to control the camera, and the fight for honesty and trust between friends. But for him, it was probably a fight for life and death. Of course I don't understand how life can be so bitter, desperate, anxious and indifferent. It is not a matter of the essence of documentary or interference. Nor is it a matter of academic theories or practice. It is just about me and him and the questions between us; that's all.’