Island in Between

CinemaSerf 3/22/2024 6:26:36AM 8.4

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.