Review: Island in Between

Chiang examines his relationship with his homeland

The Oscar nominations are out today and there were the usual suspects with Oppenheimer garnering 13 nominations, Poor Things with 11, and Killers of the Flower Moon, 10.

I have a soft spot for The Holdovers, with Paul Giamatti for Best Actor and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for Best Supporting Actress. 

Another is the Hayao Miyazaki full-length animated feature The Boy and the Heron, a science-fiction tale about life and death, and the choices you make in life.

Chiang moved back to Taipei

Barbie is a tough one... there was outrage from Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling that director Greta Gerwig and actress Margot Robbie were not nominated. It's a tough call. The film made US$1 billion at the box office, but is it Oscar worthy?

I did not see any of the nominated full-length documentaries, but in the short docs I just watched Island in Between. It's about Kinmen, an island that is between China and Taiwan.

Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang presents a historical but also personal look at Kinmen. After the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan after their defeat in the Chinese civil war in 1949, they used Kinmen as a buffer, a first line of defense, and men who did military service, like Chiang's father, were posted there. 

Chiang also talks about how his family immigrated to the United States, but then a few years ago, during the pandemic, he moved back to Taipei, Taiwan to be closer to his parents. In the film it seems like he is also trying to figure out his relationship with not only Taiwan but also Kinmen, what he is doing there and what the future holds.

While there is mention of the cross-strait tensions, Island in Between also shows the slow pace of Kinmen, from people buying food from outdoor stalls to two women chatting in a salon about how the pandemic has made it difficult to go back to China.

He looks at Kinmen and its role in Taiwan

Chiang also goes beyond the China (bad), Taiwan (good) storyline, that the lines between them were blurred when Taiwanese could visit China and vice versa. 

He talks about how he feels like a child caught between a three-way custody battle between the US, China and Taiwan that Chiang describes as "hostile, co-dependent, manipulative". "They all think they know what's best for me. They don't care what I want," he says.

His reflections about Taiwan and himself aren't just a single voice -- his observations and questions on what will happen next is on the minds of all Taiwanese especially following the recent presidential election. 

Watch it here: http://tinyurl.com/4kutvp8v