A Critique Essay on the Film ScriptPick Youth

• Main Authors: Tsung-Han TSAI, 蔡宗翰
• Other Authors: 李道明
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/tz3b6b

碩士 === 國立臺北藝術大學 === 電影創作研究所 === 98 === Pick Youth is a story that takes place in a small town in Southern Taiwan. Being in the medical profession have been a tradition in the family of our protagonist, A-Sen. A-Sen’s grand-father forces him to learn to play violins. In the back-story, the life of A-Sen’s father had been pre-arranged by his own father, and was forced to give up his love for rock’ n’ roll music and took over the clinic business of his family. The first act of the play opens with A-Sen: he is in his 9th grade preparing for high school entry exam, and is forced to transfer from music program to regular class. Being a new student in the class isn’t easy, and A Sen is fortunate to learn that some of his new classmates are also interested in rock music, together they sign up for a rock band contest. Not surprisingly, A-Sen’s grandfather strongly opposes this idea, but even A- Sen’s father is not quite on his son’s side. Regardless of the situation, A-Sen insists on doing his own thing and causes quite a stir in his family. Then, without warning, A-Sen’s grandfather falls ill, bringing a tremendous impact to A-Sen. A-Sen, who grows up with a worry free childhood, has never experienced anything like this before. He begins to wonder if he’d brought the illness to his grandfather and should continue to stay in the band or not. Noticing this change in A-Sen’s life, his father recalls his own rebellious side and remembers what it was like for him ten years ago. Thus, he reaches out to his son and encourages A-Sen to continue his music pursuit. Unfortunately, A-Sen didn’t listen. On the day of the music competition A-Sen’s father couldn’t find his son anywhere so he only hopes that his son will show up at the competition as expected. Meanwhile, A-Sen is actually taking care of his grandfather in the hospital. When it’s time for A-Sen’s band to perform, A-Sen’s father decides that he should take his son’s place to go up to the stage, not just because he cares deeply for his son, but for his own inner pride—buried all these years—and finally release them. The runtime for Pick Youth is approximately 95 minutes. The story centers on A- Sen and his experience after joining the band. The script deals with the dual father-son relationship (grandfather-father; father-son) and its complexities. With the vigorous crowd of extras as band audiences, rock bands’ live performance, along with great cinematography and music score this anther wishes the film will attract enough youths to come to the theaters. I also hope the film will be able to reflect the perplexity between familial affection and obsessive control more on a personal level. This essay first introduces the inspiration for and the process of writing the screenplay, then moves on to compare with Ang Lee’s The Wedding Banquet which also bears similar familial issues. In terms of the script structure and its genre I compare my work with Lee Hall’s Billy Elliot. I analyze both the script characters and the use of the cinematic space. I conclude with reviewing/looking back at my creative process of this screenplay. Keywords: father-son relationship, rock music, classical music, modern and traditions, screenplay