Memories buried at sea don't stay there

Despite being a small budget film and also a debut for both of the film's two directors, An Ocean Too Deep is a refreshing work in the context of Taiwan's recent cinematic output. This is not a film about urban life, about alienation or social morbidity, nor about the plight of political oppression. Instead, it's about the deep blue ocean that surrounds the island of Taiwan.

The film starts off with a question? What is usually the reason for a person to leave the city and make a solitary visit to the seaside? The end of a romance? The need to sort out a tangled relationship?

In the film, these are the reasons that send the two protagonists to a small town off Taiwan's east coast.

Alex (Christopher Downs) is an American travel writer visiting Taiwan for a story. He is also escaping his troubled marriage. Hsiao-chih (Wang Tung, 王潼) is a 17 year-old girl from Taipei who believes she is pregnant with the child of her irresponsible boyfriend and wants to commit suicide. They meet in Hsiao-mao's (Wang Chih-tsang, 王啟贊) house, the only hostel on this deserted stretch of beach.

As Alex doesn't speak Chinese, he is an outsider, but also a perfect observer of all that takes place in the small hostel. "The ocean of Taiwan is sometimes strange. There is always a surge underneath the calm surface," Alex writes. This is used as a metaphor for the relationships between the characters in the film.

It was the teenage Hsiao-mao who saves Hsiao-chih from the sea, and from that moment he develops a strange attachment to her, although he remains ignorant of what had driven her to attempted suicide. Between Hsiao-chih and Alex, another kind of relationship develops out of mutual sympathy for the suffering caused by damaged human relationships.

For Hsiao-mao and his older sister A-Yu (Chang Pen-yu, 張本瑜), who both grew up by the seaside, the sea is an unwanted burden. They both want to go to the city and cannot understand why people come here.

A-Yu and Hsiao-mao's grandmother is a Aborigine, now old, sick and living in the mountains. A-Yu has remained behind to look after her but feels stuck in the village. Her policeman boyfriend had to transfer to this isolated spot to be with her. She feels pressured by this and wants to break up with him.

All the hidden emotions surface during a trip on a fishing boat when the two city slickers ask to be taken out to look at the dolphins that live in nearby waters.

With an accident at sea, the ocean sheds its beauty and becomes the burial ground for the sorrowful memories. Even after they all leave the east coast, its surging ocean remains a repository of these memories.

The ocean is the central motif of the film, and provides breathtaking backdrops to the action, which is sometimes a bit disjointed.

Wang Tung and Wang Chih-tsang are good in portraying the repressed feelings of disturbed young hearts. An elegant score, which incorporates something of the local Aboriginal music, sets the whole thing off nicely, a gentle reminder of your own memories of traveling along the east coast.