Viva Tonal: The Dance Age (2003)

Overview

"I'm a cultured woman, travelling about footloose and fancy-free…”So begins a lilting tune from Taiwan's“Dance Age”of the 1920s and 1930s, a paradoxical time when the island's occupation by Japan also brought youth culture and a measure of artistic freedom. Women smoked cigarettes, love scandals were rife, and risqué Taiwanese pop was born. Embarking on a voyage to visit the surviving singers, composers and record aficionados of the era, this lively historical documentary mixes engaging interviews with catchy songs, haunting period footage, and reenactments of the unrequited romance between the adored chanteuse Chun Chun and her songwriter CHEN Chun-Yu.