A young boy goes around town in his two-wheeler, asking people if they want his help with anything. No one is ready to accept his helping hand. The sojourn ends with him getting into a fight with another boy who questions Bo-Yan’s trustworthiness as his family has a lot of unpaid dues. Later, Bo-Yan gets a job at his friend Howai’s fish farm. Here, he is entrusted with a key which he loses during the many trips on his two-wheeler with his friend. After searching for the rest of the day, as the tide rises, he tries to get to the one place he thinks he might find the key.
From the very beginning, what captivated me most was the cinematography, followed by the natural sounds embedded in the background. It continued to keep me hooked through the short. This approach effortlessly augments the pain of a young boy traversing the streets of his town looking for somewhere to belong. The right amount of lighting also has played its part here and glimpses of the small-town life are a treat to watch. Kudos to Feng Yi-Wei’s cinematography and Wu Song-Han’s sound.
The screenplay from Chen Chai-Ping and Lu Po-Shun portrays the young boys pretty well. Their bond comes across in the pranks and adolescent dialogues. The two boys Bo-Yan and Howai played by Liao Bo-Yan and Wang Guan-Xi act realistically and their chemistry is key to the narration. Direction from Po-Shun Lu brings it all together and deserves the accolades received in film festivals.
Being ostracized by a town can be a difficult image to portray and message to convey. Bo-Yan’s earnestness in proving himself trustworthy against the wild tides resonates with the short itself, which is real, simple and talks about something so basic that no man can live without.
