Where the Sea Breeze Blows

Each year, the filmmaker’s family takes a ferry from Kaohsiung to Penghu to visit her grandfather. When he chooses to end his life, that routine ends. Her mother keeps a diary while the filmmaker records images; through these acts of remembrance, they begin a dialogue and learn to say goodbye.

Chen Shao-chun: ‘I used to describe the Taihua Ferry as “big as the Titanic”. Every summer before [college] graduation, I took it to Penghu to visit my grandparents; six hours of sea wind and nausea, then Magong. My grandfather loved its name. After his funeral in 2017, I never returned, and now the ferry is retiring.

I once thought I had outgrown wondering where people or things go when they leave. But this ship carries too many memories. Before it disappears, I want to keep its image — and my unresolved goodbye—inside [the] film.’