Presented at the Annecy Film Festival during the last edition held from June 11 to 16, Happiness Road is the first animated film by Taiwanese director Hsin Yin SUNG. Warmly received by the press on the one hand, the film also charmed the public. It will be in theaters on August 1st thanks to the distributor Eurozoom.
Happiness Road
Original title: Happiness Road
Release date: August 1, 2018
Duration: 111 minutes
Origin: Taiwan
Realization: Hsin Yin SUNG
Scenario: Hsin Yin SUNG
Format: DCP – VOSTFR
Image Aspect Ratio : 1.85
Sound format: 5.1
Audience: adult, high school, college
Technical staff
Musical composition: Tzu-Dog WEN
Sound: R.T KAO
Artistic direction: Tsai-Chun HAN, Jocelyn KAO
Direction of animation: Shih-Ming HUANG, Ta-Wei CHAO
Producer: Huaiju KAO
Producer: Syvia FENG
Executive Producer: Jeffrey CHEN
Synopsis
Tchi lives in the USA where she settled, in pursuit of the "American dream", after her studies in Taiwan. Her beloved grandmother dies and here she is back in Taiwan where she finds her family, her memories of children and her neighborhood Happiness Road. Everything jostles in his mind: the nostalgia of childhood, the winks of Sino-Taiwanese history, the bitterness of exile, two cultures so far apart, his career hopes, his American boyfriend, his family so different with somewhat cheesy traditions. What if the American dream wasn't one in the end? Will Tchi end up finding herself when she didn't even know she got lost? (Eurozoom)
After Summer Wars, Wolf Children Ame and Yuki, The Crossing of Time and the most recent Kimi no na wa (Your Name), Sword Art Online: Ordinal Scale, the famous Mazinger Z, Fireworks, Lou and Mermaid Island and many others, Eurozoom continues to fill its catalog of titles already superb with Happiness Road. A trip outside Japan that will not displease us and that should enchant young and old!
Hsin Yin SUNG
Born in Taipei, young director Hsin Yin SUNG studied film theory in Kyoto before obtaining a master's degree at Columbia College in Chicago. Before becoming a filmmaker and being able to make a living from it, she wore many hats: journalist, writer, karaoke employee in Kyoto… She first became known with short films, screened in international festivals (THE RED SHOES, SINGLE WALTZ). She won the Best Animated Film Award with THE RED SHOES at the Taipei Film Festival in 2013. At 44 years old, she returns today to present her first animated film, Happiness Road , which is intended to be a story of family, childhood friends, memories and feelings. An open window on the history of the island of Taiwan, little known in the West, very detailed.
Learn more about the history of Taiwan (Taipei)
If the "discovery" of the island by the Portuguese took place in 1542, Taiwan was already populated by aborigines who, today, represent only 2% of the population. Lin Su-Chi's grandmother is a descendant of these natives.
After the seventeenth century, the island is regularly invaded (by the Dutch in particular) which leads to the miscegenation of the population. China was the colonial power that managed to establish itself the longest, but after the defeat of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), China ceded Taiwan to the victor. Taiwan took advantage of the negotiations between the two powers for a time to declare its independence for the first time, but had to lay down its arms very quickly before the Japanese army.
It was only after the Second World War that Taiwan became Chinese again, but under American tutelage. Already, the confrontation with the communist bloc is being felt: Taiwan is indeed becoming the refuge of the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, Chiang Kai Chek, who was defeated in mainland China by Mao Zedong. Chiang Kai Chek establishes a dictatorship on the island, supported by the US, by periods and according to its interests. He died on April 5, 1975, the birth day of the heroine of Happiness Road. It was only three years later that his son, who became president of Taiwan, allowed the island to open up a little and authoritarianism gave way to freedom of expression. However, it was not until 1996 that Taiwan experienced its first elections and it was only in 2008 that the island was considered by the European Union as truly democratic. In January 2016, Tsai Ing-wen became the first female president of the Republic of Taiwan.
In forty years, Taiwan has seen the gradual transition from a one-party state with a single language (Mandarin imposed from school, as we discover in the film) to a multicultural and multi-party society. Happiness Road takes place throughout this period of political instability. The film's thirty-year history saw one last tragic political event: the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, while Lin Su-Tchi was on American soil.
An animated film that we can't wait to discover in French cinemas thanks to Eurozoom! Happiness Road seems to be a breath of fresh air on the horizon, a film that takes you back to your roots, through its heroine, Lin Su-Tchi. You will tell us about it!
https://youtu.be/quuBE2Xdgr4
Source: Eurozoom
