In a small lazy southern
Taiwan port town, two lonely youths are desperate to escape their drab existence. The first half of the movie is humorous at times, with the child Ah-gui seemingly intent on being killed or maimed. Her father brings home naked mannequins in his drunken stupor, to replace the wife who left him. Ah-gui's world has always been different, and the adults around her don't know why. Her grandmother takes her to see a local shaman to find out why. The shaman says her spirit has gone, but it will return when she grows up. To Ah-gui the world is black, gray, and white and full of constant frustration. Testing at her school finally determines that she is completely color blind. The person she looks up to is her cousin Ah-hsian. In his mind Ah-hsian travels the world with the help of his bookshelf full of travel guides. A great story teller, Ah-hsian takes Ah-gui on imaginary journeys. The journeys take her away from their drab little town into a world full of odd people, strange customs, and unbelievable wonders. When asked why she has to be so different, Ah-hsian replies that wouldn't the world be boring if everyone was the same? Ah-hsian finds his feelings of being different make sense after a meeting a Japanese tourist who is traveling alone. Ah-hsian brings Ah-gui along when he takes some mosquito repellant to the visitor who is staying overnight in an extra room at the local school. When she goes to find her cousin who is taking a long time, she witnesses part of the intimate encounter between the two. The next day when the tourist departs, we seem to see a new Ah-hsian. So does Ah-gui. Some years later, Ah-gui is still having a difficult time dealing with her life. She is now going to
cosmetology school, a frustrating effort considering her disability. Instructors berate her and even Ah-hsian teases her. Ah-gui and Ah-hsian still dream and plan that one day they will go away to a place where they will not be different. Ah-hsian it turns out, is not only a dreamer, but also a hopeless romantic: the most important goal in his life is 'True Love'. Ah-hsian invites Ah-gui along on an all-night date in the harbor with his new boyfriend. Ah-gui reluctantly goes along and pretends to be asleep as she listens to the discussion. The next day she shows her anger by hacking the hair from her practice head. She attempts to borrow a
thousand dollars from Ah-hsian to replace the mannequin. However, when he demands that she pay him back because apartments in New York are expensive, she tells him to keep his money. While delivering dinner to her uncle, she finds her money in one of her uncle's hiding places. Soon after, Ah-gui consults a travel agent for help in planning a trip. A pilgrimage to a certain
small island in the Pacific where, according to her cousin, she will fit right in because almost everyone there is born color-blind. Both Ah-hsian and Ah-gui soon discover that no matter how carefully you plan and dream, if you are careless with your feelings, life can be unbearably painful. Ah-gui witnesses Ah-hsian's boyfriend with another, the fight that follows, and Ah-hsian apparently crying for hours in the church confessional. In almost perfect English, a soliloquy by Ah-hsian of the passionate love sonnet
Somewhere I have Never Traveled by
E. E. Cummings portends a sad ending. Ah-qui wakes one night to someone banging on the door, yelling "Come quick, Ah-hsian has killed himself." After racing to the hospital on her bike Ah-gui tells her comatose cousin how disappointed she is; how chicken his is; and asks who is he going to take her away now? The movie ends with Ah-gui visiting Ah-hsian who is still in a coma. She tries to get him to play some games they used to play as children and continues asking him to wake up. Later at home with her grandmother who makes umbrellas, grandmother ask her to give her a yellow umbrella, she gives her a blue one and takes the yellow for herself to twirl. Looking off into the distance she tells her grandmother, "Look a rainbow." ==Cast==