Hit film is first step out from shadow

Sometimes it seems that director Vivian Chang (章蕙蘭) would like to forget who she is.

As the great-granddaughter of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), she has lived in the shadow of the family legacy, both benefiting from it and being criticized because of it. She is often associated with her father, high-profile politician John Chang (章孝嚴), who is a former KMT secretary general. It is an identity she's was born with, yet after watching her latest release -- a nominee for the Camera d'Or award for cinematography at this year's Cannes Film Festival -- one infers she is escaping from under her name by carving out her own success.

The 29-year-old director's Hidden Whisper (小百無禁忌) will be shown tomorrow and Friday at the Majestic Theater with English subtitles. The film is divided into three vignettes that portray a 5-year-old child, a 17-year-old, and a 30-year-old. Identity and experience are the twin pillars of the plot.

The high school teen, Hsiao-bai (小百), constantly switches her identity by stealing peoples' ID cards and then taking on the new persona. In one incident, she delights in her new identity while wandering Taipei with a man suffering from amnesia after a car accident, a man with no identity at all. The twists of the plot also take viewers into the world of the 5-year-old child, as she daydreams in an urban landscape and fantasizes to escape the turmoil in her life. In the third part, Hong Kong starlet Shu Qi (舒淇) plays the 30 year-old Hsiao-bai, who has a detached but tense confrontation with her mother as she lies on her deathbed.

"The name Hidden Whisper means secretive episodes of life. The words these three girls said at the end of each part imply three kinds of sentiment to themselves," Chang said. The film was well received by critics at Cannes and it went on to receive kudos at the Edinburgh Film Festival and at the Pusan International Film Festival. Many critics said the work was a rare Taiwanese film because it wasn't overwhelmed by a burdensome social or political message.

The film instead seems to track a person's gleeful dalliance with escapism.

When the 5-year-old Hsiao-bai listens to her parents' violent fights in the darkness, she fantasizes that they are instead dancing an elegant tango. Hidden in the subtext is the characters' desire to be anyone other than who she is. "Growing up I sometimes wondered if I was someone else, what kind of life would I be living," Chang said. As a student, Chang was often rebellious, sometimes in an attempt to shirk the expectations inherent in the family mantle. "At high school, I skipped classes to go to movies, go dancing and play volleyball, basketball, anything but books," she said. "I even changed my school record cards to pretend I was a good student for my mom. It was at that time I realized an unruly part of my personality."

Although her parents hoped she would study law, Chang chose to learn filmmaking at Boston University, after first earning a sociology degree. At the film's local premiere, last Saturday, her father said, "When we heard she wanted to study film in the US, we did have some reservations and worries about the idea." But he is well used to it now, and brimming with pride as his daughter is referred to as "Director Chang."

Despite her youth, Chang is an experienced producer of short films, getting her first break by working on Sylvia Chang's (章艾嘉) Tonight Nobody Goes Home and Tsai Ming-liang's (蔡明亮) The Hole. But at a time when Taiwan's film industry is slumping, being given NT$16 million from the Central Motion Picture Corporation (中央電影公司) to shoot a 90-minute feature film for a relatively green director is a luxury that dozens of young filmmakers crave. Whether this good fortune is based on talent alone or family connections is a source of debate.