Synopsis
Set against the bustling backdrop of Keelung Harbor, Ngôo Guân, an inn owner, and A-Siù, the daughter of a local noodle stand owner, live in a state of perpetual longing. Both are waiting for men who left for Manchuria: Ngôo Guân for his son, Kimura, and A-Siù for her lover, Kok-Bín. Every time a ship bells across the port, their hopes surge, only to be crushed when the docks empty. This shared obsession creates a rift within A-Siù’s family, as her mother, A-Hù, grows increasingly resentful of their refusal to move on.
The hotel becomes a crossroads for broken souls: a bitter couple returning from Guangdong arrives only to unravel and go their separate ways, while a widowed helmsman offers A-Siù a chance at a stable, if loveless, future. The stalemate finally breaks when an old alcoholic, Giû-siông, returns with Ngôo Guân’s son—but the miracle is only half-complete. While one family is reunited, A-Siù receives word that Kok-Bín has betrayed her for another. In the wake of this revelation, Kimura proposes a new life for them all in North China. Everyone yields to the idea of leaving eventually except A-Siù, who remains silent, caught between the pain of her past and an uncertain horizon.
Lin Tuan-chiu, Playwright
Lin Tuan-chiu, a playwright, stage and film director, and industrialist from Taoyuan, Taiwan. He graduated from Meiji University with a degree in Political Economy.
During his university years, he joined the campus drama club and simultaneously organized the "Sōyōkai" (Double Leaf Society) with local youth in Taoyuan to study drama. Around his university graduation in 1942, he first entered TOHO Film Company to participate in film production, and later joined the literary department of Moulin Rouge Shinjuku-za, famous in Japanese drama history for its "New Comedy Movement," becoming the first Taiwanese playwright in the Tokyo theatre scene. After returning to Taiwan in 1943, he served as a drama instructor for the Taiwan Drama Association and, together with Wang Jing-Quan and Zhang Wen-Huan, established the "Kōsei Drama Research Society," directing and producing plays such as The Castrated Rooster and Takasago Inn, ushering in the "Dawn of the Taiwanese New Drama Movement." After the war, he founded the "Renjuzu" (Human Drama Troupe) in 1946. Shortly after the performance, he left the arts due to political turmoil and returned to his hometown to work in mining. In 1957, he established Yufeng Film Company and built the Hushan Studio, whose scale was unmatched in Taiwan. Yufeng's film production was rigorous, adopting a non-profit approach to cultivate film talent, which was unique in the history of Taiwanese cinema. After completing the film Six Suspects in 1965, it was not released, and he shifted his focus to manufacturing, no longer involving himself in cultural affairs. He passed away from heart failure in Taipei in 1998.
During his involvement in the drama and film industries from the 1940s to the 1960s, he continuously created scripts, and in his later years, he returned to his desk to revise The Castrated Rooster for the third time. The scripts he created throughout his life were mainly written in Japanese and Taiwanese. Six stage plays and 17 film scripts are currently preserved and collected in The Complete Works of Lin Tuan-Chiu (edited by Shih Wan-shun).
Credits
Playwright: Lin Tuan-chiu
Director: Kim Naghyung
Cast: Kim Taekyun, Nam Taegwan, Moon Changoan, Park Sunhye, Yoo Hyebin, Lee Kibok, Ju Eunju, Choi Wonjae, Kim Haemin, Park Jihun
Assistant Director: Lee Hwanjun
Producer: Shon Shinhyoung
Play Translator: Im Mi-ju
Chinese Subtitle Translator: Huang Shu-qian
English Subtitle Translator: Chen Yi-ming
English Subtitle Translation Editor: Johan Amatsakio
Chungbuk Theatre Company
Chungbuk Theatre Company was established in 2024, through years of effort from Chungbuk’s citizens and the local theatre artists. It aims to enhance the competitiveness of performing arts creation in Chungbuk and to provide its residents with diverse and high-quality cultural enjoyment. It is the 4th provincial theatre company established in the country, acting as a creative performing arts platform that encompasses artistic creation, enjoyment, and distribution. The Chungbuk Theatre Company will strive to create a local theatrical ecosystem, promote art in Chungbuk residents’ daily lives, and pursue the identity of Chungbuk and contemporary art under the slogan, "One United Heartbeat of Chungbuk Through Art." Together with its community, it pursues arts on stage that everyone in Chungbuk can enjoy together.
About the 2026 Taiwan International Play Reading Festival
The 2026 Taiwan International Play Reading Festival is curated by the Prologue Center for New Plays and jointly organized with the Taipei Performing Arts Center, aiming to establish an international exchange platform centered on playwrights and plays. Each year, the festival focuses on a specific country or cultural region, exploring the differences and resonances among theatrical traditions and textual aesthetics through staged readings and cross-cultural interpretation. In the festival, plays are not only the starting point of theatrical creation, but also a medium for cultural exchange through which diverse social experiences and creative perspectives are reflected, opening up a space for cross-cultural dialogue.
Organizer
