Who'll Stop The Rain

Synopsis

In Taiwan in 1994, after the end of martial law, art student Chi-wei joins protests seeking greater freedom of expression. Political participation brings her into close contact with Ching, the girlfriend of a student-strike leader. Attraction develops within a movement already concerned with authority and the right to determine one's life. The resulting triangle makes the language of liberation personally complicated, because the people challenging institutional rules still carry expectations of their own. The film follows the intersection of artistic independence, activism, and desire without assuming that progress in one area automatically creates freedom in another. Chi-wei must negotiate what she owes the collective struggle and what she wants as an individual, as public conviction and private vulnerability begin placing different demands on the same relationships.