The Daughter-in-law / La Belle-fille
by Steve Wang
Adapted from Liaison the bestselling novel by Wang Ben-Hu. It is a “pas-de-trois” love story involving a Taiwanese war veteran Ah-Dee, his adopted son and his daughter-in-law. The story spans twenty years from Ah-Dee's service under Japanese command during World War II to his life as a bamboo farmer in the mid 1960’s in the mist-shrouded mountains of central Taiwan.
Traumatized by the war, Ah-Dee has been unable to marry. Hoping still to build a family, he adopts a son, Spring, then a woman, Tangerine, to marry his son. When Spring leaves for military service, Ah-Dee falls into a hopeless love with Tangerine, in a tale rich with dreams and nightmares and strange ironies of hates and love. As a result, his identity as a man could neither be found in the past nor in the future... This story reflects ironically the identity crisis of Taiwanese underJapanese rule as well as their suppression of desires.
Traumatized by the war, Ah-Dee has been unable to marry. Hoping still to build a family, he adopts a son, Spring, then a woman, Tangerine, to marry his son. When Spring leaves for military service, Ah-Dee falls into a hopeless love with Tangerine, in a tale rich with dreams and nightmares and strange ironies of hates and love. As a result, his identity as a man could neither be found in the past nor in the future... This story reflects ironically the identity crisis of Taiwanese underJapanese rule as well as their suppression of desires.
