Advertisement
Review | Listen Before You Sing movie review: Taiwanese musical drama champions its indigenous people and their way of life
- Closure threatens a school which caters almost exclusively to a dwindling indigenous Bunun community, and it enters a singing contest to avoid being shut down
- Child actors bring a delightful authenticity to the film which, while not always compelling, celebrates a disappearing enclave of Taiwanese culture
Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
0
3/5 stars
The latest in a wave of Taiwanese films championing the island’s indigenous population and their way of life, Listen Before You Sing follows in the footsteps of box office hits such as Cape No. 7, wartime epic Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, and baseball drama Kano.
The last of these was directed by indigenous actor Umin Boya (also known as Ma Chih-hsiang), who here plays a physical education teacher turned reluctant choirmaster.
In this touching family drama directed by Yang Chih-lin, closure threatens a small provincial school in the remote mountains of southern Taiwan which caters almost exclusively to a dwindling indigenous Bunun community.
Falling numbers and mass urban migration mean its funding being cut off at the end of the school year. For the locals, it marks another nail in the coffin of their disappearing culture.
In a last-ditch effort to keep the school open, it is decided that it will enter a national singing competition, despite there being a notable lack of singing talent among both students and staff.
Advertisement