Footloose, but not fancy free

The local film industry's foray into New Wave Cinema began in the early 1980s when a new breed of Taiwanese directors examined the island's rapid social and political transformation.

Twenty years later, the New Wave oeuvre and its auteurs have become the filmic orthodoxy against which a new generation of filmmakers is rebelling.

In contrast to the New Wave focus on the realistic portrayal of everyday life, emerging directors have produced a bevy of genre-driven, commercial movies, and as New Wave films rejuvenated a flagging industry before, these contemporary productions have the potential to reinvigorate Taiwanese cinema.

Chocolate Rap (巧克力重擊), a motivational, hip-hop teen movie, is one of this new breed of films, but it also aims a little higher. Collaboration with a Hollywood production crew has resulted in a movie which gives an international perspective on contemporary Taiwan.

Set in southern Taiwan during the summer, the film tells the tale of a hip-pop dancer named Chocolate whose victory in a series of dance-offs earns him the admiration of manager Pachinko. Together, they work their way to the top of the street dance scene.

A love triangle emerges as Ally Lin (teen idol Megan Lai (賴雅妍) offscreen) a beautiful girl who loves playing Bach and surfing, catches the eyes of both Pachinko and Chocolate. Amid the emotional turbulence, Chocolate breaks his leg in a car accident and returns to his father's ice-cutting business.

Chocolate's passion for dance does not wain, and he begins practicing with renewed vigor and takes on a pupil, the ambitious and vain King Kong, who spurns his teacher for a shot at fame and fortune. In the final dance-off, the pair meet to settle the score.

After founding the production company New Island Entertainment with his producer wife and a few American friends in Los Angeles, director Lee Chi-yuan (李啟源) returned to Taiwan three years ago on a mission to broaden the horizons of local cinema.

In Chocolate Rap, Lee does just that. With the help of an American cinematographer and award-winning sound effects editor, Lee's film is a cinematographic achievement in which camera movements are unbounded and the lighting, color and composition of each scene are designed in a creative yet scrupulous manner. The film's tempo is fast but smooth and reflects the subject matter: the loves and passions of the young.

The film is refreshing in form and subject matter as it deals with the rarely-tackled subculture of street dancing.

On first encountering a dance-off of 300 to 400 Taiwanese youths Lee said the experience "just blew my mind. It's just amazing to see how those Taiwanese kids can dance far better than the black kids in the US. I immediately knew that it would make a great story on the big screen."

The dancers featured in the film are all professional street dancers who have several trophies under their belts. The performances they give in the film are a great pleasure to watch and the acting is best described as honest since they all seem to play themselves in real life.

Film sets and landscape also play important roles in the film. Places such as Moon World (田寮月世界) in Kaohsiung County and the breathtakingly beautiful Kaomei Wetland (高美溼地) in Taichung County provide strong backgrounds for the actors.

"For me, picking the right place is as important as picking the actors. I like to put the actors in different environments and see what kinds of chemistry can be achieved. I rarely do rehearsals and try to bring out the true moments of the actors' lives," Lee said.