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Darkness and Light (film)

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Darkness and Light
Directed byChang Tso-chi
Written byChang Tso-chi
Produced byChen Hsi-Sheng
StarringLee Kang-i
Wing Fan
CinematographyChang Chan
Edited byChen Po-Wen
Release dates
Running time
104 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguagesTaiwanese
Mandarin

Darkness and Light (Chinese: 黑暗之光; pinyin: Hei An Zhi Guang) is a 1999 Taiwanese narrative film directed by Chang Tso-chi. It was screened as part of the Directors' Fortnight section of the 52nd Cannes Film Festival, and won the Grand Prix at the 12th Tokyo International Film Festival.[1][2] Darkness and Light was also nominated for seven different categories at the 36th Taipei Golden Horse Film Awards and went on winning the Jury Award, the Best Original Screenplay Award, and the Best Film Editing Award. In 2010, it was ranked 43 of the Top 100 Chinese-language films by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards Committee.[3]

Plot

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Darkness and Light unfolds in a fishing town in Keelung, a port city near Taipei. Kang-yi, a seventeen-year-old student in Taipei returns home in Keelung for summer vacation. Growing up with an absent mother, Kang-yi takes care of her family: her intellectually disabled younger brother, her blind father, and her grandparents. All of them live together in an apartment complex in Keelung and work as masseurs at the massage parlor run by Kang-yi’s father out of their apartment home after a car accident blinds him and kills Kang-yi’s mother when Kang-yi was little. Kang-yi's family depends on her to connect with the outside worlds as she helps guide them at work and through everyday tasks. Kang-yi meets Ah Ping, a young gangster from a mainlander family who just moves into her apartment building. Kang-yi slowly develops a crush on Ah Ping. As the two of them start hanging out around the neighborhood and eventually make a trip to Taipei together, they become embroiled in a gangland fight that unfortunately kills Ah Ping. Meanwhile, Kang-yi’s father falls ill and eventually passes away after his trip to Taipei with Kang-yi. Devastated by the tragedy of losing both her father and Ah Ping, Kang-yi sees her father and Ah Ping's magical return in the film's dream-like ending. Darkness and Light ends with a surreal sequence following a firework showering from Kang-yi’s window, during which Kang-yi’s father and Ah Ping, the two characters who have died previously, return to Kang-yi’s home for a meal and are warmly greeted by everyone.

Cast

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  • Lee Kang-i as Kang-yi – A seventeen-year-old student in Taipei, who returns to her home in Keelung to take care of her blind father, intellectually disabled younger brother, and grandfather during summer vacation. She falls in love with Ah Ping.
  • Wing Fan as Ah Ping – A young gangster who just moves to Kang-yi’s apartment building and is killed in a gangster dispute.
  • Tsai Ming-Shiou as Kang-yi's father – Blinded by a car accident, Kang-yi’s father runs a massage parlor out of their apartment home with Kang-yi’s brother and grandfather and three other blind masseurs.
  • Hsieh Bau-huei as Kang-yi's mother – Killed by the same car accident that blinds Kang-yi’s father when Kang-yi was still very young at age.
  • He Huang-ji as Ah Ji – Kang-yi's intellectually disabled younger brother.

Production

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Since his early productions, Chang Tso-chi has been known for his style of working with people who share similar lived experiences with the characters portrayed in his films. The same goes with his second feature length film, Darkness and Light, as all the blind characters Chang Tso-chi cast in the film are discovered by him on the street. To prepare the amateur actors for their roles, Chang Tso-chi often asks the entire cast to spend extended time together, so that they can bond and build a sense of intimacy together. "I usually rent a house and have all the actors move in," Chang explained to Taiwan Review journalist, Kelly Her. "They live, cook, eat, and even sleep under the same roof, so that they can get to know each other quickly. That makes the shooting go smoothly and their performances more natural." Chang further noted in the same interview that, while shooting the film, he relied on portable lighting to give his actors maximum freedom of movement.[2]

Reception and Reviews

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In 2010, Darkness and Light was ranked 43 of the Top 100 Chinese-language films by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards Committee.[3]

CineAction film critic, Shelly Kraicer, praised Chang Tso-chi's second feature length film, Darkness and Light, as "the most demanding and the most rewarding Chinese language film at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival." "Like fellow Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chang [Tso-chi] makes films that impose a speed (slow) and a rhythm (subtle, insistent, measured) on their viewers."[4]

Variety film critic, David Stratton, described Chang Tso-chi's second feature length film, Darkness and Light, as "combin[ing] realism with mysticism to baffling effect. A genuine oddity, pie has distinctive qualities and is a possible traveler on the summer fest circuit.” He also noted that the film’s “fantastic finale is on a completely different level from the downbeat realism of the rest of the film and its generally naturalistic thesping. It certainly makes for an unusual resolution to an otherwise standard study of working class types and gangster substrata.”[5]

Taiwan Review film critic, Kelly Her, praised, "Movie director Chang Tso-chi, one of the few survivors of a film industry battered by international competition, is winning kudos from critics for his tales of the triumph of the little man struggling against long odds."[2]

Music/Soundtrack

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Taiwanese singer and songwriter, Summer Lei (雷光夏), wrote and sang the theme song, “Forgiveness,” for Chang Tso-chi's Darkness and Light. In 2006, during the pre-production of Summer Lei's own music album, Summer Lei phoned Chang Tso-chi to inquire about the possibility to use the title of Chang’s film, Darkness and Light, for her new album. To Lei's surprise, Chang agreed without any hesitation. Chang even told Summer that she could use any of his film titles for her albums.[6]

Anecdotes

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Chang Tso-chi, fidgeting under the glare of television cameras and looking slightly uneasy at the press conference at the 59th Venice Film Festival in September 2002, commented, "Writing a script is delightful, and so is shooting a film," he said during a press conference. "But wearing a suit and tie is miserable."[2]

Awards and Recognitions

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Festival Premieres and Highlights

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Awards

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Award/Ceremony Category Name Outcome
10th Tokyo International Film Festival Tokyo Grand Prix Darkness and Light Won
Asian Film Award Chang Tso-chi Won
Gold Award Chang Tso-chi Won
2nd Taipei Film Award Best Film Darkness and Light Won
The Most Promising Talent Lee Kang-i Won
Special Jury Prize Darkness and Light Amateur Actors Won
36th Golden Horse Film Awards Best Feature Film Darkness and Light Nominated
Best Director Chang Tso-chi Nominated
Best Leading Actress Lee Kang-i Nominated
Best Original Screenplay Chang Tso-chi Won
Best Film Editing Chang Tso-chi Won
Best Sound Effects Thio Hugo-Panduputra Nominated
Jury Award Darkness and Light Won
Singapore Film Festival Best Picture Darkness and Light Won
Jury Award Darkness and Light Won

References

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  1. ^ "Director's Fortnight 1999". The Director's Fortnight. 1 May 1999. Archived from the original on 30 April 2017. Retrieved 17 July 2016.
  2. ^ a b c d Her, Kelly (December 2022). "DARKNESS AND LIGHT: Chang Tso-chi captures on film the struggles of the Taiwanese underdog while promoting the battered industry abroad". Taiwan Review. 52 (12): 48–55.
  3. ^ a b "Top 100 Chinese-language Cinema (影史百大華語電影)". Archived from the original on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2015-10-14.
  4. ^ Kralcer, Shelly (2000). "Toronto International Film Festival '99: Darkness and Light". CineAction (51): 60–61 – via Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database.
  5. ^ Stratton, David (24–30 May 1999). "Darkness and Light". Variety: 69 – via Entertainment Industry Magazine Archive.
  6. ^ "Chang Tso-Chi shares his film title, Darkness and Light, with Summer Lei's new music album! (張作驥痛快分享『黑暗之光』，雷光夏新專輯名稱正式敲定！)". iNews. 17 November 2010. Retrieved 22 Mar 2023.
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