As we start a new relationship, it often takes a while to constitute a certain kind of routine with this new person in your life. Especially living together can be a difficult test which has occasionally ended relationships before they even began to fully blossom. Talking with each other, discussing certain matters of living together, from the most profound elements to the most banal processes, can be a challenging task, due to the inherent imperfections of language itself. Perhaps this was the starting point for Taiwanese director Pin-ru Chen second short feature “Echo Each Other” which shows two women in a relationship who have just started living together, and who have abandoned spoken language and instead rely on sign language and other means of communication.
“Echo Each Other” is screening at Queer East Film Festival
Without even going into the actual events shown in the feature, you may note that while spoken language has its flaws, the same can be said for sign languages, gestures and other modes of expression. Right from the start, this problem seems quite evident in the portrayal of the two women and how they communicate, with their first conversation being a very serious argument which becomes more intense as the scene goes on. As the story progresses, these discords accumulate, seemingly caused by either failed communication, misunderstandings or downright ignoring the other person, a development accompanied by various sounds highlighting the level of tensions, for example, the sound of a drill.
At its core, the concept of the other person being an echo chamber or echoing statement becomes increasingly important. Following the theories of linguists and sociologists such as Paul Watzlawick or psychologists like Friedemann Schulz von Thun about the nature of communication, the conversations of the two women build up on each other, especially on those uncorrected misunderstandings and various links to other memories, influencing the relationship quite drastically. At the same time, Pin-ru Chen, perhaps taking some inspiration from the works of Wong Kar-wai, whose “Chunking Express” is shown in one scene, emphasizes the harmony when communication works, like a dance of two people, reacting to the other person's movements.
“Echo Each Other” is a thoughtful short feature about the flaws of communication. Taiwanese director Pin-ru Chen tells a story about a couple living together, who have abandoned spoken language only to find that there may be not perfect mode of expression, but there may be these few instances of harmony in life with another person that are worth living for and remembering.
