The Birth of Memorial Archway

"The Birth of Memorial Archway” is an independent short film in the ongoing production of a romance feature film/paper film [1101] which tells the stories of female protagonists in sex industries.

-Link: better quality of the poster and trailer

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WPf1ACW-f9OU3sVEmrRcHJHgL_My0raX?usp=sharing

-Synopsis.
A lone drinker meets a pole dancer in a run-down bar on the edge of town. In a superficial conversation, the dancer mentions her horrible past without any emotion, and the drinker's hypocritical reaction does not confuse her. Then, out of the blue, the otherwise passive drinker goes on a rampage and asks the dancer to leave her other profession, prostitution. Although they are also in the relationship of client and a prostitute. The dancer trying to get rid of this topic. As time passes, The dancer, who finds that she has known the drinker since junior high, is no longer patient with the unfocused conversations and fortunately brings the drinker back to the flat for sex. These two seemingly intertwined people are actually more like parallel lines .....

-Issues
"The Birth of Memorial Archway", the title of this film, is a fascinating but mockery look at the 'high moral standards' set towards women.
It begins with the word "Memorial Archway", which means "pagoda first, then prostitute". This is used to introduce the dichotomous framework of 'chastity' in relation to female morality. Between 'prostitute' and 'chastity', a narrow moral ethical existence for women is defined. The question that the creator attempts to raise is that without labels such as 'pagoda' or 'chastity', other terms such as 'prostitute' that speak of the moral corruption of women, which are used to talk about the moral failings of women, lose their opposites to support these meanings.
Following from the discussion of women's dilemma, the issue can be more specifically seen in the context of sex workers, who also belong to a specialized service industry.

-Inspiration for the story
In Taiwan, the origins of the popularity of pole dancing can be traced back to the 1980s, when an illegal form of gambling was practized in the community: 'Fun Fair', where people would invite pole dancers to dance for the temple fairs in order to please the spirits of the ghost temples and win lottery tickets, which later became a subculture in Taiwan. However, because the dancers wore very little clothing while dancing and the venue was very rough and marginal, yet decorated with colourful neon signs, the public was prejudiced against them and the stereotype of them still lingers on.

"The Birth of Memorial Archway" is inspired by the crude venues that used to be popular for pole dancing, and by the concept of the skimpy costumes, hoping that through such a marginal, humble and fantasy style format, it will retain respect for this underlying professionalism without being overly glamoured. The focus is on the superficially light-hearted, but in fact bloodthirsty, negotiations that slowly reveal the tragic story of the interplay between family and society that makes an ordinary love "only so".

Copyright © 2022 Wei-Hsi LEE All rights reserved

Disclaimers: Affirming the fictional nature of the film and adherence to animal welfare laws.