5th OKINAWA INTERNATIONAL MOVIE FESTIVAL

The Happy Life of Debbie Strikes a Powerful Chord

The moving Taiwanese tale The Happy Life of Debbie unspooled in Theater 2 of the festival venue, touching the audience with its powerful depiction of a woman caught between two worlds, and struggling for happiness.

The family drama portrays Debbie (Jade Chou), and Indonesian woman who has lived in Taiwan for 15 years. She brought her infant son with her to the Chinese territory and married Lu (Chen Ping Chao), a drunken layabout who specializes in wasting time, go-nowhere schemes and getting into petty dust-ups. Debbie holds the family together by working full-time and doing all the domestic drudgery but their dark-skinned son Han (Nur Najman Ade Putra) is bullied at school. Despite Lu’s incompetence at holding a job he has a strong bond with the now adolescent Han, fathering him as best he can.

One day Han’s biological father, an Indonesian coffee mogul, turns up in Taiwan and Debbie and Lu are petrified he will try to take the boy back to Indonesia.

The film is delicately crafted such that Debbie’s complex emotions, her love for her husband and son, her mixed allegiances to both Taiwan and Indonesia and her concern for their dire situation, are all readily apparent. The emotional power of the piece was in evidence when director Fu Tien-wu, lead actress Jade Chou and producer Khan Lee took the stage to an enthusiastic crowd after the screening.

Jade Chou related the challenges of her multi-faceted role, “there were 2 things that were difficult for me in this film. I performed the role of a mother, the first time for me, and I referenced how my own mother treated me. Also, I had to act in Indonesian language and this was not easy. As I memorized my lines for the film I studied Indonesian by listening to songs and lessons.”

Producer Khan Lee touched on the international aspect of the work. “one of the movie's unique points is to incorporate how female immigrants see Taiwan. We not only depicted the woman’s efforts directly, but also described Debbie's world through the people around her. An exceptional point of the movie is that the director captures a female perspective and puts coffee in the mix, which he loves.”

The perceptive and insightful film was best summed up the director Fu Tien-wu, who noted, “I put my understanding about what happiness is into the movie. This film is about finding happiness in family life. Even if the family has a lot of problems people can sympathize. I hope I could express the theme that one needs to find happiness close to home, one needs to try to find happiness through ones own efforts, and not look for happiness somewhere far away.”