The Extra's Journey

"A Taiwanese story of struggles among dreams, reality and families."
Would you still be willing to pursue a dream no one believes you can achieve?
Queenie is a girl who has left her hometown to work in the capital city of Taipei. She is an extra actor and also works part-time nurse in a beauty clinic; she hopes to become a professional actress one day. But the working environment often requires women to do very unusual performances. So for the career expectation, she can only accept the situations. Ke-Han is a Taiwanese who is turning 30. Although he doesn't look like a star from his look, his biggest dream is to work with his idol, the martial art actor Donnie Yen one day. So he got into the circle of extra actors and started to learn to become a martial artist.As an extra, he works through various film productions and is willing to take all performing-related jobs for his living.

This documentary records Taiwanese Extra Actors of different gender, generation and background. For them, the support from their family is the biggest strength and may also be a hindrance. Before touching on the goal and clarifying their own predicament, they are still running around in the industry, struggling with the balance of reality and ideals.

Through their journeys, we witness the struggles and challenges they face, including cultural differences and the difficulties faced by women in the industry. Yet, despite these obstacles, they persevere. Director WU Hsin-yu spent six years chronicling their journeys with a humorous and engaging style.

# This film In association with NHK and NHK Enterprises(Japan)
#2022 Taipei International Labor Film Festival/ Best Feature Film.
#Documentary Campus-Crossing Borders(Leipzig) project.
#CNEX Chinese Doc Forum(CCDF) project.