Cannot Live Without you

by Leon Dai

Taiwan

Director: Leon Dai

Script: Leon Dai, Chen Wen-pin

Cinematographer: Chang Hsiang-hu, Chou Yi-wen

Editor: Leon Dai

Sound: Denis Tsao

Music: K. Yukihiko

Cast: Chen Wen-pin, Chao Yo-hsuan, Lin Chih-ju

Production: Atom Cinema
8F-5 N6 Hengyang Rd
Taipei 100, Taiwan
Tel: +886.2.2370.1666
Fax: +886.2.2370.1665
GSM: +886.936.569.797
Mail: [email protected]
www.atomcinema.com

Year: 2009

35 mm, B & W, 92 min, 
OV Mandarin with English Subtitles
French Electronic Subtitles

French Premiere

Wu-Hsiung, father of a seven-year-old girl, lives in a fishing village close to Kaohsiung with his daughter. Despite his low level of income, he leads a simple but satisfying life with his daughter who seems happy. She now reaches the age for school. To register her he needs the authorisation of the girl’s mother who disappeared long ago. He has to struggle with the police department and the social workers for her custody. After trying all possible ways, driven by desperation for help he threatens to make a fatal jump from a bridge, in presence of the media.

Adapted from a news item, this very sensitive film has the ring of truth. “I spent a long time thinking how to tell the story but I couldn’t find the right "colour tone" for it. I realized that by making the film in simple black-and-white, it may be less appealing for the commercial market. But I hope the audience will be able to use more of their imagination and to give these images their own colours.” Leon Dai