Dispelling the Darkness with a Touch of the Light

Is it worth spending seven years to tell the story of one blind musician and his personal growth?

New director Chang Jung-chi has spent seven years lensing the tale of young, visually impaired pianist Huang Yu-siang, starting with Prelude in 2005, on to The End of the Tunnel, to the climax of the trilogy, 2012’s Touch of the Light.

Together these three films, each with its own narrative style, comprise Chang’s “Seeing/Unseeing” trilogy.

Seven Days in Heaven director Essay Liu has described “maternal power” as a positive driving force in Touch of the Light, where Huang Yu-siang’s mother is played by veteran actor Lee Lieh, imbuing the film with the warmth and willpower characteristic of mothers.

Prelude, a 10-minute documentary, begins the story of Huang Yu-siang­, then a student at the National Tai­chung Special Education School for the Visually Impaired. After starting to learn piano at three years of age, he begins working hard to realize his dream of becoming a professional musician, as his mother, Xu Yue­gui, stands by him throughout.

The End of the Tunnel, meanwhile, is based on a true story, albeit with a few creative plot elements thrown in and a fictional leading lady. At its heart, though, it continues the young pianist’s true story, and received the Best Short Film award at the 2008 Tai­pei Film Festival.

After seeing The End of the Tunnel, internationally renowned Hong Kong director Wong Kar-wai praised Chang as “a visionary director,” someone who can see what others don’t, and encouraged him to continue developing toward feature-film work. Hence Touch of the Light.

Touch of the Light, the climax of the “Seeing/Unseeing” trilogy, is Chang’s first feature-length drama. In comparison to Prelude and The End of the Tunnel, Touch of the Light has a more expansive story, covering the relationships between characters, whether friends, family, or teacher and student; while the ambiguously romantic relationship between the male and female leads, injected with humor, will leave the audience smiling.

In terms of plot, the main story is that of a blind pianist, but the director also weaves through the tale of the lead female, a dancer, to intertwine tales of both music and dance. The two stories switch from foreground to background, sometimes alone, sometimes intersecting.

The cast of Touch of the Light is also top-notch. After lighting up screens at the Asia Pacific Film Festival with her performance in Yang Yang, Sandrine Pinna played the leading lady in The End of the Tunnel and again in Touch, an aspiring dancer who befriends Huang. Veteran actor Lee Lieh, who has also moved into the role of producer, plays Yu-siang’s mother, while internationally recognized dancer Sheu Fang-yi makes her debut cinematic appearance, playing a dance teacher with consummate realism.

In the film, Yu-siang, the male protagonist, is an undergraduate music major who was born blind, but has exquisite piano skills; the female protagonist, meanwhile, dreams of becoming a dancer, but is stuck having to work all day to pay her way. At its heart, Touch of the Light is a story of making dreams come true, and how hard that can actually be.

Particularly worth mentioning is how Chang has used his own seven-year relationship with Huang as the foundation for the character of A-Qing, Huang’s light-hearted roommate. In the film, Yu-siang, A-Qing, and some friends come together to combine their skills in piano, rap, and beat-boxing, forming the band Super Music. A-Qing serves as a foil to Yu-siang, just as entertainer Natto does as employer to Xiao-Jie (played by leading lady Sandrine Pinna) at a bubble tea store. These more light-hearted characters serve as the main comic relief of the film, rays of light amidst the largely serious dramatic theme.

In Touch of the Light, Yu-siang, his roommate, and other friends join to form the band Super Music; even off-camera the group would practice together and goof around.

The main aim of Touch of the Light is to get across the idea that there is positive power even in the most potentially negative of situations.

With its combination of concern for the underprivileged, comedic moments, and the never-say-die attitudes of the leads, Touch of the Light has everything you’d want from a heart-warming cinematic experience. After opening in late September, both word-of-mouth and box-office takings have continued to grow, and as of the end of October the film had taken more than NT$50 million. Meanwhile, at the Bu­san International Film Festival in South Korea, the film took the Audience Choice award, and already it has been selected as Taiwan’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Oscars.

The 32-year-old Chang graduated from Kun Shan University’s Department of Motion Pictures and Videos and National Taiwan University of Arts’ Graduate School of Applied Media Arts. At the invitation of director Yang Li-chou, in 2006 the two worked together on My Football Summer, a documentary about a junior-high soccer team from Hua­lien that follows them as they train and play. The film, which marked Chang’s first steps into Taiwan’s cinematic world, won the Best Documentary award at that year’s Golden Horse Awards.

After the first Taiwanese cinematic hit of the year, Yang Ya-che’s GF*BF, Touch of the Light has provided a warm-hearted wrap-up to the year.

In Chang Jung-chi, Taiwan has another promising new director to watch, and in Touch of the Light, Taiwan has another source of inspiration for people to pursue their dreams, because even when there is darkness all around, there is always a touch of the light to be found.

The 2008 film The End of the Tunnel was Chang Jung-chi’s first attempt to inject dramatic elements into Huang Yu-siang’s life story, creating an alternative truth within the film for Huang.

Touch of the Light has won over audiences in South Korea, taking the Audience Choice award at the 2012 Busan International Film Festival. This photo shows the international poster for the film.

The two protagonists, played by Sandrine Pinna and Huang Yu-siang, each face their own obstacles along the way, but through mutual support and encouragement, each finds their own way to head for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Thirty-something film director Chang Jung-chi has found his muse in the form of visually impaired pianist Huang Yu-siang, spending seven years crafting his “Seeing/Unseeing” trilogy around the young man. For his part in creating Touch of the Light, the final part of the trilogy, Huang was named Outstanding Taiwanese Filmmaker of the Year at the 2012 Golden Horse Awards.

Internationally renowned choreographer Sheu Fang-yi (left) makes her debut film appearance in Touch of the Light, playing a dance teacher who encourages the leading lady to pursue her dreams.