The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) has long served as a crucial platform for emerging cinematic voices, and this year, Taiwanese director Lee Yi-shan made a significant debut with her feature film, "A Dance with Rainbows." The boxing drama, which premiered at the festival, transcends the confines of the sport to explore the universal struggles and hard-won resilience found in everyday life. In a post-screening conversation, Lee Yi-shan delved into the deeply personal inspirations behind her project, the meticulous dedication invested in crafting authentic boxing sequences, and the film’s deliberate positioning within the complex dichotomy of Taiwan’s commercial and arthouse film traditions.
The Genesis of a Boxing Narrative
Lee Yi-shan’s fascination with boxing as a cinematic metaphor stems from a rich personal history. Her connection to the sport dates back two decades to the creation of a documentary focused on boxing in Taiwan. This early immersion fostered a lasting appreciation for its inherent drama and discipline. Furthermore, a close friendship with a professional boxer provided Lee with an intimate perspective, allowing her to perceive the boxing ring not merely as a venue for athletic competition, but as a profound symbol of life’s relentless battles. "For me, boxing represents life, especially the way people confront obstacles and keep getting back up," Lee explained, highlighting the sport’s capacity to mirror human perseverance in the face of adversity. This philosophical underpinning became the bedrock upon which "A Dance with Rainbows" was built.
Crafting Authentic Ring Action
The creation of the film’s boxing sequences was approached with the same intensity and strategic planning as a professional athlete’s training camp. Rather than relying solely on choreographed movements, Lee and her team dedicated approximately six months to rigorous preparation for the performers. This extended period was crucial, particularly for the young cast members who often began with little to no prior boxing experience. Lee likened this foundational training to mastering a new language. "The actors first had to master fundamentals, like pronunciation and the alphabet, before they could move into fluid combinations and screen-ready routines," she elaborated. This emphasis on building a solid base ensured that once filming commenced, the collaboration with the action choreographer was fluid and organic, resulting in sequences that exude authenticity and impact.
Taiwan’s Evolving Sporting Landscape
The emergence of "A Dance with Rainbows" coincides with a burgeoning visibility for boxing in Taiwan, particularly for its female athletes. Lee noted that while the sport may not yet command mainstream popularity, its profile has been significantly elevated by Taiwan’s impressive performance in women’s boxing at the 2025 Olympic Games. This athletic triumph, she suggested, not only brought discipline and its dedicated athletes into the national spotlight but also cultivated a more receptive audience for narratives centered around boxing. This growing cultural engagement provides a fertile ground for Lee’s film, resonating with an audience increasingly aware of and inspired by the grit and determination of Taiwanese boxers.
Personal Echoes and Universal Themes
The characters populating "A Dance with Rainbows" are deeply rooted in Lee Yi-shan’s own life experiences and observations. The portrayal of a father figure willing to compromise his dignity for financial gain, and a coach who channels the wisdom of Muhammad Ali, are direct reflections of individuals she has known intimately. Each character is imbued with distinct aspirations and internal motivations. In stark contrast, the young heroine is crafted as an embodiment of innocence and purity, her unblemished nature standing in sharp relief against the compromised adults surrounding her. Lee reflected on her own evolving perspective, admitting that as a younger woman, she identified more with the heroine’s yearning for simple truths, whereas now, she finds a greater connection to the complexities and struggles of the older generation she depicts.
This nuanced portrayal of familial dynamics has clearly struck a chord with audiences across Asia. During post-screening Q&A sessions, viewers have frequently approached Lee, sharing how the on-screen father figure mirrors their own. One audience member even remarked that the on-screen family bore an uncanny resemblance to his own. When the film was perceived as a critique of the previous generation’s perceived selfishness and irresponsibility, Lee acknowledged the validity of this perspective but contextualized it within a broader East Asian cultural tension. In many Asian societies, parental authority is traditionally unquestioned, yet the discrepancy between parental pronouncements and their actions can create a sense of hypocrisy for their children. This generational divide, a common thread in many contemporary Asian narratives, is explored with sensitivity in Lee’s film.
Critiquing Media Spectacle and Societal Norms
A particularly striking and tonally distinct sequence in "A Dance with Rainbows" features a "boxing babes" style variety show. This segment, a departure from the film’s otherwise grounded realism, was inspired by a personal anecdote from Lee’s boxer friend. Her friend, a short-haired lesbian, was invited onto a Taiwanese television program that required young women to adopt provocative attire and personas. The experience of her friend having to don a wig, apply makeup, wear a revealing costume, and feign punches for a predominantly male audience served as a potent commentary for Lee. Through its recreation, the film critically examines how television often commodifies and packages women’s bodies and athletic talents for the purpose of spectacle. To ensure this scene served the film’s overarching themes, Lee masterfully wove in a motif involving plastic bags, thereby reconnecting the segment to the central theme of family and preventing it from devolving into pure satire.
The film also sheds light on the world of underground boxing matches in Taiwan. These events, while lacking formal structure, draw considerable crowds who attend more for the spectacle than for the pursuit of sporting legitimacy. This milieu adds another layer of complexity to the film’s backdrop, where physical risk and entertainment converge in a morally ambiguous and captivating manner.
The Rigors of Casting and Performance
The casting process for "A Dance with Rainbows" was an arduous and demanding undertaking, spanning approximately a year. The production meticulously evaluated potential performers, assessing their aptitude for the intense physical demands of the film. Lee and her team faced a critical decision: should they train actors to box, or cast actual boxers who could then learn to act? The Taiwanese film industry, at the time, offered little scope for professional actors to dedicate six months solely to boxing training. Consequently, the production sought out exceptionally committed newcomers. Over the course of this extensive search, many candidates withdrew, unable to meet the rigorous demands. Ultimately, the two young women who anchor the film, including Lin Yi-ting, proved their mettle by enduring the rigorous preparation and subsequently committing to an additional six months of intensive training.
Ensuring the protagonist’s believability in the ring, without presenting her as an already established elite athlete, required meticulous attention to detail. The crew closely monitored her diet and exercise regimen, mirroring that of a professional sportsperson but always with the character’s specific level and background in mind. Concurrently, the parental roles were entrusted to seasoned performers. Tsai Chen-nan, a veteran actor whose filmography includes seminal works by Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Yu An-shun, a popular singer and actor, brought a substantial gravitas to their roles, lending significant weight to the family dynamic.
Visual Storytelling and Influences
From a visual perspective, Lee Yi-shan adopted a restrained and realistic approach, a testament to her documentary filmmaking background. Her intention was to keep the camera grounded, allowing it to follow the actors’ movements and performances rather than dictating them. The team meticulously planned the actors’ blocking, subsequently enabling the cinematographer to craft compositions that organically flowed from their actions. Set design, lighting, and camera placement were all subservient to the performance, designed to enhance rather than impose a rigid stylistic framework. Lee cited her profound admiration for cinema verité and directors such as the Dardenne brothers, whose influence is palpable in the film’s intimate, handheld rhythms and its keen focus on faces and bodies under duress. This commitment to vérité filmmaking imbues "A Dance with Rainbows" with a raw, immediate quality that draws the viewer deeply into the characters’ experiences.
The Evocative Power of Music
Music plays a pivotal role in underscoring the emotional arc of "A Dance with Rainbows," particularly in the "boxing babes" and plastic bag sequences. Lee’s longtime composer, Tsai Yi-chun, with whom she has collaborated for over a decade, found the project to be a unique challenge. The team grappled with selecting the appropriate instrumentation. A score leaning too heavily on traditional Eastern melodies risked feeling incongruous with the contemporary setting, while a purely Western palette could detach the film from its cultural roots. The ultimate solution was the creation of a hybrid musical language, exemplified by a tango-like motif subtly infused with Eastern inflections. This recurring musical phrase appears in pivotal scenes, serving as a gentle reminder to the audience that, beneath the surface of spectacle and conflict, the narrative is fundamentally about family. The score was meticulously composed after picture lock, allowing Tsai Yi-chun to respond with precision to the performances and the emotional beats of the film.
Navigating Taiwan’s Cinematic Currents
When discussing the contemporary Taiwanese film industry, Lee Yi-shan described a landscape fraught with complexities and diverging audience expectations. The habits of moviegoers have become intrinsically linked to the types of films being produced. A significant portion of the audience now seeks out rapid-fire thrills and immediate sensory stimulation at the cinema. This demand has, in turn, compelled local creators to devise content that captivates viewers from the opening moments. Within this environment, a palpable tension exists between commercial directors, who often accuse their arthouse counterparts of diminishing audience interest in local productions, and arthouse directors, who conversely feel that purely commercial endeavors are contributing to a decline in artistic standards. The two spheres rarely intersect, creating a fragmented cinematic ecosystem.
Lee perceives herself as navigating this challenging terrain, positioned between these opposing forces. "A Dance with Rainbows" eschews easy categorization, existing neither as an unadulterated commercial crowd-pleaser nor as an austere, exclusively festival-oriented piece. Lee readily acknowledged feeling "torn by her environment, pulled in both directions at once." Her film’s Taiwanese premiere occurred in the shadow of another local release that, against all expectations, achieved remarkable box office success. This breakout "miracle" title commanded widespread attention, inadvertently overshadowing smaller projects, including Lee’s own, that debuted concurrently. This experience highlights the precarious balance independent filmmakers must strike in a market dominated by blockbuster potential.
Future Endeavors and a Director’s Vision
Looking ahead, Lee Yi-shan is already engaged in the development of a new project, a thriller centered on a middle-aged woman who practices a traditional Taiwanese spiritual ritual known as "soul collecting." This practice, often performed for ailing infants, involves a woman employing gestures, vocalizations, and the evocation of fear to expel malevolent spirits and restore health. Lee described the central figure as a kind of folk therapist or psychiatrist, a role predominantly fulfilled by women in Taiwanese society. The film aims to explore themes of belief, fear, and gender through this uniquely local and culturally rich lens.
With "A Dance with Rainbows," Lee Yi-shan has masterfully transformed years of documentary observation and personal lived experience into a grounded, emotionally resonant boxing narrative. Through its meticulously crafted training regimen, its deeply layered portrait of family, its incisive critique of media spectacle, and its nuanced exploration of Taiwan’s evolving film culture, the film marks the confident arrival of a director unafraid to inhabit the tense space between commerce and art. Her characters, much like Lee herself, are willing to fight their way through these complex terrains, offering audiences a compelling and unforgettable cinematic journey.
