Chen Hung

At a fishing village, plans for the expansion of a nearby oil refinery cause a big stir, triggering a three-way power struggle between an old protester, villagers, and factory representatives.

Smokestacks rise like organ pipes over a coastal city, lined with oil refineries. Accidents at the plants occur with troubling regularity, and environmental disaster has become part of daily life. Residents protest the refinery’s planned expansion, even as they must coexist with the very neighbors who work there.

1961, post-war Taiwan. Ma Shuisheng, the eldest son of the Ma family, is forced to sell the family's ancestral land to purchase morphine for his ailing parents, providing them relief from pain. Eventually, Shuisheng faces a heart-wrenching decision between their last piece of farmland and his newborn child.

In 2014, Kaohsiung was struck by an unprecedented petrochemical gas explosion, exposing once again the city's unresolved dependence on heavy industry. Through a fictional investigation, this film adopts "voice" as its investigative method. Beginning with the ruptured petrochemical pipeline that caused the disaster, it gradually reveals the relationship between Kaohsiung's petrochemical industry and its citizens, while uncovering an industrial history that spans Taiwan's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy.

At a fishing village, plans for the expansion of a nearby oil refinery cause a big stir, triggering a three-way power struggle between an old protester, villagers, and factory representatives.

At a fishing village, plans for the expansion of a nearby oil refinery cause a big stir, triggering a three-way power struggle between an old protester, villagers, and factory representatives.

Smokestacks rise like organ pipes over a coastal city, lined with oil refineries. Accidents at the plants occur with troubling regularity, and environmental disaster has become part of daily life. Residents protest the refinery’s planned expansion, even as they must coexist with the very neighbors who work there.

Smokestacks rise like organ pipes over a coastal city, lined with oil refineries. Accidents at the plants occur with troubling regularity, and environmental disaster has become part of daily life. Residents protest the refinery’s planned expansion, even as they must coexist with the very neighbors who work there.

1961, post-war Taiwan. Ma Shuisheng, the eldest son of the Ma family, is forced to sell the family's ancestral land to purchase morphine for his ailing parents, providing them relief from pain. Eventually, Shuisheng faces a heart-wrenching decision between their last piece of farmland and his newborn child.

1961, post-war Taiwan. Ma Shuisheng, the eldest son of the Ma family, is forced to sell the family's ancestral land to purchase morphine for his ailing parents, providing them relief from pain. Eventually, Shuisheng faces a heart-wrenching decision between their last piece of farmland and his newborn child.

In 2014, Kaohsiung was struck by an unprecedented petrochemical gas explosion, exposing once again the city's unresolved dependence on heavy industry. Through a fictional investigation, this film adopts "voice" as its investigative method. Beginning with the ruptured petrochemical pipeline that caused the disaster, it gradually reveals the relationship between Kaohsiung's petrochemical industry and its citizens, while uncovering an industrial history that spans Taiwan's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy.