Chronicle of the Sea, Nan-Fang-Ao (2005)

Nan-Fang-Ao, a village in northeast Taiwan, once thrived on its big-net fishing industry. Now migrant workers from the Philippines and China vigorously live and work with the locals on one of the few remaining fishing boats. As we observe their life at sea, where the air is abuzz with different languages and gestures, thoughts of home drift among those who have come to provide for their families. There is the captain who talks about the old days, the woman who sent her husband off to sea and runs a shop in the village, and the laborers from foreign countries who buy gifts for their families at the market. With a fresh look, the film depicts people living on the unchanging stage of the ocean’s vast wilderness.