Movies of War

“Silent Asylum” is part of the omnibus “Taipei Factory”, a collection of four 15 to 20 minute shorts, each pairing a young Taiwanese director with a filmmaker from another country in a collaboration initiated by the Director’s Fortnight and the Taipei Film Commission. In this case French actress and director Joan Preiss worked with Midi Z. The story begins inside a decrepit apartment in Taipei, where a man is smoking and singing next to an opening in the wall that appears to have once been a window, while a woman records him on camera. In low quality video, the camera then faces him directly as he narrates his life story. An incident in which the village chief, accompanied by men in uniform, knocked on his family’s door in the middle of the night under the pretext of conducting a census and proceeded to tear the place apart highlights the political climate in the country at the time. Furthermore, his comment about wearing camouflage clothes for protection, along with references to protests in August 1988, sheds additional light on the context. The next segment takes place inside an apartment where members of a family are watching television. There, a man older than the previous one, wearing a camouflage jacket (in a rather ironic comment), begins narrating a story about the consequences of the government raising oil prices eight times, which eventually led to protests involving both the army and monks. Afterwards, a young woman, played by Wu Ke-xi, recounts the situation in the mining regions of Myanmar, including a massacre and acts of pillaging that forced many people into refugee camps. In the final section, the French woman who was previously filming appears moving through the ruins of a destroyed building while reflecting on her experiences wandering through devastated places. Interestingly, the individuals speaking are not actual refugees but actors, with Wu Ke-xi standing out in particular thanks to an impressively delivered monologue. This choice introduces a dramatized dimension to the narrative, which nevertheless remains firmly rooted in reality and is presented in a style that resembles documentary footage, making the commentary particularly eloquent. Through these testimonies, the devastating circumstances faced by people in the region, where war has repeatedly ravaged communities, are conveyed with brutal honesty. Moreover, the contrast between the speakers, a young man, an older man, and a young woman, combined with the different environments in which their stories unfold, intensifies the emotional impact by emphasizing the diversity of the tragic experiences described. The final section, however, feels somewhat unnecessary and ultimately comes across as slightly pretentious. On the other hand, the sequence featuring the family watching television inside the apartment stands out as the highlight of cinematographer Sheng Xiang Fan’s work, whose framing throughout the short remains consistently impressive. Ultimately, “Silent Asylum” emerges as an excellent documentary short that, within just sixteen minutes, highlights the hardships Myanmar has faced and continues to endure while also demonstrating the filmmaking sensibility of director Midi Z, whose talent would fully flourish in his later works. Tags:midi zSilent AsylumTaipei FactoryWu Ke-xi