This anthology film, directed by four emerging filmmakers, includes Jim Tao’s Little Dragon Head, Edward Yang’s Expectation, Ko I-Chen’s Leap Frog, and Chang Yi’s Say Your Name. Together, the four stories capture the innocence and solitude of childhood, the first stirrings of love in adolescence, the passion and recklessness of youth, and the wistful reflections of adulthood—together telling a complete story of life. This approach marked a groundbreaking beginning for the Taiwan New Wave movement.
Director Edward Yang remarked: “That sense of helplessness that comes with [the arrival of menarche] is key. It’s not emotional—it’s highly rational. So when handling it, you need an interplay between emotion and reason to create something new. Pure emotion is always drawn from lived experience. But once you add reason to it, you can reach beyond your own experiences—and that’s where it becomes meaningful.”