Blue Cha Cha depicts Ah Yu ( Tarcy Su), a woman in her thirties who has just been released from prison. She stays with an older women, An An ( Lu Yi-ching), the proprietor of a girlie bar in the port town of Kaohsiung, and attempts to form relationships with two men: businessman Chen Sang ( Leon Dai) and factory worker Hao (Wei Lee). [3] [4]

Wu, Nelson H. (24 November 2006). "Asia-Pacific fest falls for 'Unwanted Woman' ". Variety . Retrieved 2 June 2021.Sneider, Jeff (2006-10-19). "Oscar race counts 61 countries". Variety. Archived from the original on 2012-12-05 . Retrieved 2008-06-22. As we approach the one-year anniversary of Galbán’s passing (July 7, 2011), the result is a recording with an almost orchestral feel, bursting with the energy that only he could glean from the guitar. With his uniquely personal stylistic elegance, Galbán could transform any tune into a gem, adapting it to a language ahead of its time, a language he created, where the sounds of the instrument bore as much significance as the discourse of the guitar. Galbán was a cornerstone of the six-string instrument, and he achieved something that very few are ever able to do: only a couple of bars are needed to recognize his unmistakable style. Special guests on final recording include Omara Portuondo, Rosa Passos, Trío Esperança, Eric Bibb, Sissoko Ballaké and Marcelo Mercadante, among others In 2003, I saw Cheng Wen-tang's debut feature, the magisterial Somewhere over the Dreamland, at the Asian Film Festival in San Francisco's 4 Star Theatre. Floored by the film's poetic treatment of lost love, I knew I had just viewed one of the best Taiwanese films in recent years. Blue Cha Cha is a record that needed to be made, so it’s a real gift,” says Galbán’s daughter, Magda Rosa. “My father used to laugh a lot, and he would say that everything in life has to be given because ‘you know, from up the sky, there are many clouds that you cannot see…’ With this album he could see his dreams come true, and I hope that God enjoys his music as much as we have here on earth.”

The film observes as An-an wades through two traumatic relationships, one with a rich and probably corrupt patron of Ah Yu's bar, and the other with a young manager at the electronics factory she ends up working at. If the film seems at all directionless during these sequences, it's to reflect An-an's own uncertainties about her future. Through the deliberate pacing, the film refuses to surpass An-an's own sense of speed; to drive the plot any faster would be to betray her gradual emotional re-awakening. Cheng shows his sincerity about the characters' desires by very sneakily hiding from us that An-an is mentally stunned. By only revealing the concrete and visual (rather than the diagnostic or medical) details of her life -- pills, slow movements, facial expressions -- the audience learns to sympathize with An-an as a person rather than a patient, and her depiction comes off as anything but exploitative or stereotyped. More important than the root of her condition (which is the Freudian obsession of most mainstream films) are the ways An-an very gradually learns to cope with employment and romance after her release from jail. Ah Yu too is depicted as less a saint-like guardian than a loud, stubborn lady with an inclination for liquor and dance.The setting was the Laemmle Sunset Theatre in West Hollywood; the event was the VC Film Festival. Only a small handful of patrons arrive for the screening, but that's expected for a small Asian film by a director whose previous films are unavailable anywhere. It's a great pleasure when watching a film you're enjoying and knew nothing about to recognize that beyond being a good film you are also experiencing the work of a skilled director. The upside to this is that there's a good chance you'll have at least a few more good films in your future. Such is the case with Blue Cha Cha.

Blue Cha Cha requires patience, and yes, that's code for it being an art house type film that moves slowly and doesn't offer a lot of detail as to why things are happening. Beyond a somewhat ambiguous statement near the end of the film revealing why Ah Yu was in prison we never learn anything about her past, and throughout the film it is clear that she has no idea nor concrete desires for her future. She just drifts along, medicated, mentally unstable yet always trying to be nice, hoping each day will offer some measure of fulfillment. Blue Cha Cha isn't a low-budget indie film, though. It has excellent production values and looks very good. The direction is fluid and creative and the cinematography is great. Galbán revisits the sound that he himself forged and so many have tried to imitate, his unique playing style was perfectly suited to the most modern sounds. Galbán’s career had brought him to all four corners of the world, where all his inspirations and experiences are revealed on this final recording. Foreign language Oscar nominees announced". The New Zealand Herald. 2007-01-17 . Retrieved 2008-06-22.We began with a selection of about one thousand tunes,” said Cuban guitar legend Manuel Galbán and the album’s producers Juan Antonio Leyva and Magda Rosa Galbán. Indeed, Blue Cha Cha, recorded in 2010 and the first solo work to be released by the late guitarist in many years, had been hatched conscientiously. This was a characteristic adopted by Galbán throughout his career. He was a musician who liked to allow projects to mature for as long as necessary to ensure optimal results and was averse to embarking on unwarranted adventures.

Blue Cha Cha embraces everything from the combination of Galbán’s distinctive guitar work and Sissoko Ballaké’s kora on “Batuca” to Eric Bibb’s style of blues on “Bluechacha.” “I was happily surprised to learn that Manuel Galbán was aware of me as a musician,” says Bibb. “I was absolutely thrilled to be asked to be a part of his final recording. Being in the studio working on “Bluechacha” was an unforgettable experience that I’ll always treasure. Manuel Galbán was an amazing guitarist and bandleader – it’s a great honor to be a small part of his recording legacy.” Cha Cha_ requires patience. That’s code for it being an art house film which moves slowly and doesn’t offer a lot of detail as to why things are happening. Beyond an ambiguous statement near the end of the film revealing why Ah Yu was in prison we never learn anything about her past, and throughout the film it is clear that she has no idea nor concrete desires for her future. She just drifts along, medicated, mentally unstable yet always trying to be nice, hoping each day will offer some measure of fulfillment. _Blue Cha Cha_ isn’t a low-budget indie film, tho. It has excellent production values and looks gorgeous. The direction is fluid and creative and the cinematography crisp and colorful. Blue Cha Cha ( Chinese: Shēn hǎi, 深海) is a 2005 Taiwanese film directed by Chen Wen-Tang. It was Taiwan's submission to the 79th Academy Awards for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not accepted as a nominee. [1] [2] Director Zheng Wentang: I want to keep the rookie spirit". Business Today (in Chinese). 19 November 2015 . Retrieved 2 June 2021.

These words lay testimony to an ever-apparent aspect: when you bring musicians from entirely different walks of life to a studio and they can connect regardless of language or culture. The film did the rounds of the European film festival circuit, screening at the 2006 International Film Festival Rotterdam, [5] the 2006 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, [6] and the 33rd Brussels International Independent Film Festival where it won the festival's Grand Prize. [7] In 2016, ten years after its release, the film screened as part of the Kaohsiung Film Festival. [8]