The day little Yang has been waiting for is finally here: his father has come to pick him up from the orphanage for a day excursion. The two spend some quality time together, the father urging Yang to study harder and the little boy teaching him what little English he knows. They spend the night in the father's apartment but come day break, it is time for Yang to separate from his father yet again and return to the cacophony of the orphanage. But all the boy wants is to not be separated from the one person he loves.
“The Child of Nowhere” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative
Dio Wang takes the audience through the inner workings of an abandoned child with great efficiency in this short co-funded by the Taiwanese Ministry of Culture. Like many children at orphanages, all Yang wants is to be a family again. His situation, however, is unique. He has a father and yet cannot really have a family, for unexplained reasons. This is further puzzling since the father clearly loves the boy and clearly wants to spend time with his son.
The story could've probably benefitted from a brief explanation of this situation but taking nothing away from it, it still holds up well in its existing form. Dio makes some poignant points about a child's needs and desires through some key scenes, of which the one where Yang takes back a new pair of shoes he discarded earlier and hugs them and weeps silently being the most effective and thought-provoking.
“The Child of Nowhere” features fine performances from both Zhu You-cheng as Yang and Cheng Yu-chieh as his father. Primarily, the story rests on young Zhu's shoulders and he manages to enact the emotions of the sorrowful child commendably. The bright cinematography adds to the project's overall visual appeal.
As the short reaches its final shot, it is to Dio Wang's credit that one cannot help but be fully sympathetic to Yang's plight and his inner turmoil. This is a well-shot, well-acted and confidently directed work that should certainly put its director on your list of artists to watch out for.
