Li Wu-hsiung is a poor single father working high-risk jobs aboard boats in the harbor zone, where he lives in an illegal shack with his young daughter who was abandoned at birth by her mother, then married to another man. Father and daughter live happily together until she reaches school age, at which time he tries to enroll her in a public school, only to have her removed from his care by the government. His desperation to get her back leads to a showdown that becomes a worldwide media event. Based on a true story, Leon Dai’s sharp, emotional second feature—a multiple prizewinner at international festivals, including top honors at the 2009 Taipei Film Festival—is rendered in strikingly composed black-and-white while at the same time reaching into the grayer shades of its rich story of contemporary Taiwanese society. No Puedo Vivir sin Ti is Taiwan’s official entry for the 2010 Academy Awards.


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Written by Leon Dai, Chen Wen-pin. Photographed by Chang Hsiang-yu. With Chen Wen-pin, Chao Yo-hsuan, Lin Chih-ju. (92 min, in Mandarin and Taiwanese with English subtitles, Luminoso Film)