Island in Between

Taiwanese-American filmmaker, S. Leo Chiang, returns to his parent home in Kinmen a Taiwanese Island only 10kms off the shore of Chinese mainland. The island has been at the forefront of tensions and occasional violence between China and Taiwan since the Communist Revolution, which has obviously shaped the lives of the inhabitants. Chiang provides an overview of this complex history as well as reflecting on his own childhood experiences and those of his parents.

This not a particularly innovative documentary, but for anyone with limited knowledge of the subject matter it's a fascinating entry point into a fascinating, albeit tragic, part of history that continues to have ramifications today. Well worth the 19mins.

Something we're always reminded of when writing is that just because something is based on reality, doesn't make it interesting. What we have here in this documentary short film "Island in Between" by S. Leo Chiang, is a recounting of his experiences in Taiwan and the mainland, the stories of his family, and of the people living in the island of Kinmen. The movie isn't really all that insightful and doesn't offer anything that we might find particularly interesting. That is not to discount the lives and experiences of those whose stories are being told, but a blandly made documentary is just not enough to tell an effective story.

A man who has lived the last thirty years of his life in the USA returns to his ancestral home in Taiwan just as lockdown impacts and then as relations between the nation and China continue to strain. This is a pretty standard observational documentary - but it does offer quite an interesting degree of reverse psychology. It's the Taiwanese who are bombarding their near neighbour with messages about truth, freedom and democracy - and all from their tiny outpost of the Kinmen Islands, a very short ferry ride from the mainland. This really only serves as a cursory introduction to the important issues of the delicate Sino-Taiwan relationship, and of the role of the USA in guaranteeing the integrity of the island - that, or interfering in it's future, depending on your perspective. At just twenty minutes it can't really do much justice to the subject matter, and though watchable doesn't really get us anywhere.

Road to the Oscars, 2024. This movie is nominated for one award, and it's documentary short.

Island In between is an interesting look at a conflict that still to this day need some more attention. The problem with this documentary is that it doesn't dig deep enough or tell the necessary story to really impact me. It is more a calm before the storm documentary, but understanding the storm to begin with is to me very important, and the doc doesn't go into detail about the conflict but just tells a small story about how life is on the other side.

We hear about the small island of Taiwan, close to the Chinese border. About life and problems and the constant fear.

I think the biggest problem with the documentary is the lack of understanding of everything I had. While I know about the conflict, it would have been interesting to have been introduced more to the total story. This is just a small glimpse into the life and fear of being in Taiwan, never really knowing when things are going to escalate and.

That's why I loved the idea and tone of the doc. It's almost relaxing and calm with some really well shot footage. It's about showing how quiet it is for better and worse. Nothing is going on, but they are at the same time cut off from China and never know when it's all over, it's so scary but the doc presents it in a really relaxed way. It's interesting to hear about, I just wanted more.

I wish it had a bit more focus, telling either more about the Taiwanese experience, or the covid restrictions or the story. It just lacked a bit of a red thread in my opinion.

But overall, it's nice to have a documentary addressing an ongoing conflict that is often forgotten and overlooked. It's interesting to hear, but never really got me too invested in it. The digestible runtime also makes it easy to watch, but also a surfaced, leveled one.

Oscar predictions: I don't really know if this has a chance to win, but it has a topic that would speak to the academy and the world at the moment, so I also see it having a chance. I have heard others of the documentary shorts have a better chance, but I have only seen one, and I thought The Barber of Little Rock was a better documentary short.