Since Lee started making documentaries in 1999, he has directed over 20 works of various lengths. His accolades include four Golden Harvest Awards and Golden Bell Award for Best Director. His works have been nominated at Taiwan International Documentary Festival, Taipei Film Festival, and Golden Horse Award as well as many international film festivals. In the past ten years, he has devoted himself to the filming of The Burmese Guerrilla Trilogy and Myanmar Remembered, exploring the war legacy and national identity issues in Taiwan and Southeast Asia after World War II and the Cold War. His recent works explore forgotten figures in Taiwanese art history, as well as historical memories of land and space. When Airplanes Fly Across is his latest addition to his Memory of Home series.
When Airplanes Fly Across
When Airplanes Fly Across
When Airplanes Fly Across
An ex-Red Guard and anti-Communist soldier during the Korean War, started a three-generation family next to Taoyuan Air Base. Despite the base's historical significance during Japanese occupation and the Cold War, the Taoyuan Aerotropolis project will erase its rich history by 2025, marking another loss in Taiwan's disappearing past.
'The three generations cover old-timers who witnessed the cruelty of war, baby boomers, and Generations Y&Z. They relate to and identify with their respective period of history, yet they live their lives next to the history-rich air force base, basking in the disappearing warmth of familiarity as they are subject to the pressure of relocation and a mixture of feelings ranging from bewilderment, anger, and reluctance to let go. Under the banner of national modernisation and the white-washing "public good," however, these families from the disappearing compound still hold on to their diminishing reality—until households and homeowners alike are all removed from the scene, and history turns the page of annihilation. Not entirely, though. The loud noises are still heard when aeroplanes fly across.' - LEE Li-shao
