2020 CTS Film Week: Lokah Laqi (只要我長大) Film Screening

2016｜90min｜Color｜Narrative Feature｜Mandarin, Tayal

2016 Taipei Film Awards - Grand Prize, Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best New Talents Award for (Editing), Audience’s Choice Award

2016 Golden Horse Awards - Best New Performer, Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Film Song

Synopsis

Watan, Chen-Hao and Lin Shan are three playful Sqoyaw boys forced to deal with problems too big for their age. For Watan, his grandmother, elder brother, and teacher, Miss Lawa, are the most important people in his life, while he must hunt and sell the mountain deer to make money. Chen Hao has a loving father, but misses his mother who moved to the city following divorce. The clothes she sends him from Taipei are his only connection to her. Lin Shan has a father who wants to be a singer but often gets drunk and fights with his mother. The last straw comes when his father accidentally strikes his sister, causing Lin Shan to leave home on is his birthday.

In this heartwarming coming-of-age film, resembling an Indigenous version of Orz Boyz! (2008), Laha Mebow captures the simplicity and perseverance Indigenous peoples maintain in times of difficulty. Under a whimsical tone lie the complex subjects of alcoholism, grandparenting and the outflow of youth. Through children’s eyes we come to understand the adult world’s complexities.

Director Biography: Laha Mebow

Born in 1975, Laha Mebow is a Tayal from the Tyohemg village in Nanao,Tilan. Though growing up in the city limited her Indigenous experience, her time working for Taiwan Indigenous Television helped form her identity. Most of Laha Mebow’s films revolve around Indigenous themes, as filmmaking has become the means to explore her heritage.

* All SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies are free and open to all to attend. We suggest you arrive a few minutes early at the venue to secure your seat.

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: ml156@soas.ac.uk

Sponsor: Taiwan Film Institute & Taiwan Cinema Toolkit