by Annette Basile
Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Chen Ming-Chang, Lim Giong, Wu Nien Jen, En Chen, Christine Hsu
Intro:
Although it could have done a better job at introducing the man’s music to an international audience, newcomers will nevertheless find memorable moments and enjoy spending time with the wonderfully entertaining Chen.
Chen Ming-Chang is life’s soundtrack for many Taiwanese. He’s a master of the yueqin (or moon guitar), a traditional instrument that looks something like a wooden banjo. His son says Chen’s “fingers are dancing as if they’re grabbing ants” when he plays.
Chen has a jovial, engaging personality and his interviews are punctuated with laughter. He tells a story about dealing with Sony Music, who gave him the go-ahead to make an album. He starts recording, and then he gets a call from Sony. “They believed my album wouldn’t sell more than 15,000 copies,” he says with a raucous laugh. “They abandoned the project.”
The joke really was on Sony. Chen’s music sells by the truckload and the man is not only beloved, but a highly influential figure for Taiwanese musicians – many of whom saw him play at campus gigs. He’s also culturally significant, with his early career showcasing a political voice. These days, Chen says, he has shifted from “provocative” to “pop”.
Musicians interviewed here describe his music as “unconventional”. His style is founded on a traditional base of Taiwanese folk and opera, but with subtle Western folk and pop influences (Chen has cited Dylan and The Beatles as influences, and he sometimes plays an acoustic guitar).
Chen’s film score work is the centrepiece of this documentary, and particularly his delicate and atmospheric soundtrack for the landmark 1986 Taiwanese film, Dust in the Wind. Free Beats includes interviews with that film’s co-writer, Wu Nien Jen, as well as En Chen, the assistant photographer who describes the musician’s work as a “melting pot of all folk music elements”.
There are a few twee moments but there are more than a handful of truly impressive songs, such as the gentle acoustic ode, ‘The Dolphin’, which he plays solo by the sea, a drone above capturing a beautiful coastal shot.
Aged 63 at the time of filming, Chen sometimes plays solo, at other times with a band, and Free Beats is packed with snippets of live performances from his forty-year career.
Filmmaker Lin Cheng-Sheng – who is the musician’s upstairs neighbour and appears in the film – has unfortunately included too many disconnected grabs of varying quality, and not enough extended pieces of music.
Free Beats wasn’t really made for a broad audience, but it will likely be a deep and nostalgic experience for viewers familiar with Chen’s music. Although it could have done a better job at introducing the man’s music to an international audience, newcomers will nevertheless find memorable moments and enjoy spending time with the wonderfully entertaining Chen.
