A woman is transported into a world as strange and beautiful as her dreams in this fantasy. Singing, who comes from a family of poor shopkeepers, earns her living as a cleaning woman on a ferry that services a military base. Singing has a recurring dream in which she meets a handsome stranger who speaks in language she cannot understand, and one day on the ferry she meets Tsai Hsien-tsung, a soldier who resembles the man in her dreams. The soldier is immediately smitten with Singing, and when the power goes out on the ferry, the two are thrown into a strange netherworld where they sail to South America on a deserted vessel as Singing loses her heart to the military man.
Cinematography
Gorgeous dream sequences that blur sea and sky into pure longing
Score
Haunting, sparse music that feels like half-remembered sleep
Director
Hou Chi-jan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Director Hou Chi-jan shot much of the ferry footage on actual military vessels, capturing authentic textures of Taiwan's coastal working class.
The film's dream logic and class-conscious romance directly influenced Tsai Ming-liang's later works, cementing Hou as a key voice in Taiwan's slow cinema movement.
TW
