Hip-Hop Storm
North American Premiere 
Documentary | Taiwan | 2008 | 57 minutes
Director: Su Che-hsien
Producer: Ben Tsiang
Language: Mandarin + English subtitles
Produced by CNEX Foundation
This is a story about two generations of hip-hop dancers in Taiwan.
Synopsis
“He is totally nuts about hip-hop,” described by Alun’s students. Alun is the founder of the first Taiwanese Hip-hop group “The Party”, and released two albums in the 90’s”.Hip-hop is Alun’s life, his oxygen. However, the group was dismissed already, and the members simply went separate ways. Ever since, Alun has traveled to Osaka, New York, Europe, Brazil and many other places to explore the soul behind dancing. But for many people, his search and passion seems completely alien to normal life. This film follows the period of 2007 to 2008, during which Alun was trying to make his way to a world class break-dance contest in Paris.
Mingling with Alun’s uphill journey is the story of the 2nd generation Hip-hop dancers in Taiwan, a street-dancing group calling themselves “Eight Children”. The new generation does not have to experience the same pressure from society; instead, they are now fully encouraged by the trend of pop culture. The eight high school students of “Eight Children” promise to each other that after this year’s college entrance examination they will come together and take part in Hip-hop competitions. Will they have a happy ending? Or, who cares? Hip-hop needs not to be serious. All in all, just keep dancing!
The Filmmaker
SU CHE-HSIEN (Director)
Hip-Hop Storm is the first documentary debut of Che-hsien. Born in Taipei and graduated from the Department of TV & Radio in National Taiwan University of Arts in 2005, Che-hsien is now studying in the Graduate School of Applied Media Arts for his M.F.A. degree. He made short fictions before and won several prizes. After being involved in a documentary film My Football Summer, he developed a strong passion for this genre and started making films about ordinary people who have stories to tell.
Producer Ben Tsiang is in attendance.
