Four Hands 2018

As Houcheng (Wu Hsing-kuo) disembarked from the train in Shandong Province in 1949, he faced an unimaginable ordeal as he was abruptly taken from his family by the Republic of China Army. In that moment, he was severed from his younger brother, his newlywed wife, and the life he had known. The subsequent birth of his son, Jiawang (Geng Le), became a poignant reminder of what he had lost, adding an emotional weight to his journey.

After a span of fifty years, Houcheng found himself back in Taiwan, living in a military dependents’ village in Taipei. Now an elderly man, he had remarried and fathered two children—a daughter and a grandson. His life revolved around the daily ritual of preparing mantou, a tradition that he brought from his Mainland Chinese roots. However, the passing of his second wife stirred deep feelings of nostalgia, pushing him to revisit his origins, only to discover that his first love had long since passed away. His return to Shandong was met with mixed feelings from Jiawang, who resented his father for the abandonment he felt so deeply.

Fast forward to 2009, Houcheng’s health began to falter. As his family encouraged Jiawang to take one last trip to Taiwan to say goodbye, he found himself grappling with the unresolved emotions of his youth. Inside Houcheng’s home, Jiawang stumbled upon a collection of forty-year-old unsent letters written by his mother—each letter a heartfelt declaration of love and longing for a husband who had been violently torn from her side. It was through these letters that Jiawang uncovered the truth: his father’s love and loyalty never waned, a revelation that gradually began to heal the profound rifts between them.

As Houcheng’s life drew to a close, he passed away quietly in his bed, his thoughts drifting back to the fateful day he left Shandong Province. In those final moments, he found solace in a spiritual reunion with his first love, providing him with the bittersweet closure he had long sought and allowing him to finally release the burdens of his past and embrace eternal peace.