Hip-Hop Storm
- Generation
- Youth
- Senior
- Entertainment
- Sport
- Adventure
Synopsis
This is a documentary about two generations of hip-hop dancers.
“I’m 34 now and still dancing. Probably I won’t stop until I win,” said Alun. During the 90’s, when Taiwan was just liberated from authoritarian, he formed the first Taiwanese hip-hop group, “The Party”, even though he was subjected to vast pressure from the disagreeing eyes in the society. However, the group was somehow dismissed and the members simply went separate ways.
Another line of the story is about a dance group on the street of Taipei called “Undergradu-eight”, which was formed by a group of high school students. They are of the new generation born in the 90's and they are only about half of Alun’s age. This new generation of hip-hop dancers doesn’t have the pressure from the disagreeing eyes of the society, and instead, they are fully sponsored by the praise and encouragement to a hip-hop culture.
This documentary records the period between 2007 and 2008, when Alun participated in Juste Debout – the worldwide street dance competition in Paris and when “Undergradu-eight” decided to take part in the upcoming hip-hop competition. Will they have a happy ending? Or, who cares? All in all, just keep dancing!
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Director Statement
In the summer of 2007, I decided to make my first documentary and tried to find young hip-hop dancers on the street in Taipei. I was attracted to Alun at the first sight. He is not a talkative person. Most of the time, he does not finish his sentences. However, looking into his eyes when he dances, I can tell that he is as passionate as he was when he began to dance 17 years ago. Therefore, when I learned that he was going to participate in the worldwide street dance competition in France, I felt that it would be an arduous and challenging process for him. However, it seems that he didn’t think much. He said: “I’m going anyway.”
This 34-year-old dancer doesn’t usually show his disappointment and frustration. However, in the days in Paris, he couldn’t sleep because he was thinking about his future. Standing in front of the CDs of the hip-hop predecessor, Grandmaster, he asked himself: “I want to be as successful as those dancers, but did they succeed? What do they do when they got old? Sometimes I’m confused with hip-hop, is this the right thing to do?”
Alun is a lonely dancer and hasn’t got many long-term partners in his dancing career. Although we cannot include his whole dancing life in this documentary, we can still see his attitude towards life: there is no specific plan, but there is always enthusiasm!
The dance group, “Undergradu-eight”, is pretty much the typical new generation teenager street-dance groups in Taipei. Maybe they are not so skilled as their predecessors, but their enthusiasm for dancing and the friendship between the eight kids are valuable. They show more ambition and dreams than those mediocre and unambitious adults.
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Team
- Director
- Executive Production
- Distribution
Gallery
