Footstep (feature)

By Der Sean Chou

Concept:
This is a full-length feature film, which discusses a child dealing with the loss of his father and a secret reveals a malfunction Asian family.
No matter how far away we run, it seems we always end up where we started. New York is a city full of runaways, everyone running away from something or towards something. The trick is to keep running.
This is a story about K, a single middle age Asian professional, left his home far away a long time ago. Once he had his reasons, but now he finds comfort just being one of the countless faces you see on the subway, forgotten before the next stop. A pack of cigarettes, a cup of awful coffee at the deli and Chinese take-out on the corner, these things sum up his daily life.
“Wei….K?” a voice and language so dear to him, yet so foreign. He hasn’t spoken to this person for years. “Wei”, a emotionless response. He listens cautiously as his brother tells him the news. A silent numbness crept into his heart.
The funeral was noisy and disorganized, as all Taiwanese funerals are. The mother plays her part well, controlling all the arrangements, while greeting friends and relatives, and crying at the appropriate moments. The brother carries the sorrow on his shoulders like all the strong men do, silent, never a tear. K felt detached, invisible, like a ghost from another country. Yet this is his home, the house he grew up in, the hollow that greeted him every day. He was not sure from when sadness devours everyone’s life. It lingers and follows you no matter where you go. Only one person was not affected and he barely knew him, K’s nephew, a teenage boy.
After the funeral things start falling apart. Endless arguments about carrying out the wish or not, gossips around relatives behind k and a controlling woman lost the weight of her life. K stays longer than what he expected. He is getting more and more connected with his nephew than anyone else at home.
One afternoon, when K went through his father’s belongings, accidentally he found a mysterious letter sent out from New York City addressed to his father. There are photos of his father all torn half. He was about K’s age but looked very happy, a shocking difference from the strict and stern father he used to know. The harder he try to figure out those pictures, the more frustrated he gets from comparing with his own dreary life. K did not mention his discovery to anyone. He decides to find the answer, the missing piece of those puzzles. At final destination before knocking the door, he realized the idol, serious and stern icon, he has been followed his entire life is going to change behind this door but he is going to change his life too, to a happy one. For the first time in his life he feels that he can share something with his father.