'To Be Ordinary': Taiwanese Drama Premieres at Busan — SkimNews
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- To Be Ordinary, directed by Lee Yun Chan, follows 22-year-old Yu-jie (Junior Hsieh), who is left paralyzed after being struck at a Taipei intersection by elderly Mr. Ma, with the narrative exploring the accident's fallout for Yu-jie's parents and younger sister over 11 years.
- The film premiered as the only Taiwanese production in Busan's main competition and is set to screen at the Tokyo Film Festival later this month, followed by a mid-November theatrical opening in Taiwan.
- Mr. Ma, driven by guilt, transfers ownership of his entire house to Yu-jie and continues contributing toward medical bills — a generosity Variety notes becomes its own burden as Mr. Ma retreats into old age and ill health.
- Yu-jie's family fractures along familiar lines: his parents' marriage deteriorates further under the strain, compounded by his father's joblessness, and younger sister Yu-ching feels sidelined during early adolescence, eventually lashing out.
- Lee co-wrote the screenplay with Ginger Wang, her collaborator on the 2022 Disney+ series "Women in Taipei"; the film is her fourth feature and first since 2010's "Dancing Without You."
- Variety's review frames the film as avoiding victims-and-villains framing, reserving compassion for every party — though it notes the persistently overcast visuals and solemnly emotive writing could use more tonal surprise.
Why it matters: Lee's first theatrical feature since 2010 arrives with unusual festival momentum: the Busan main-competition slot made it the sole Taiwanese film in the lineup, and Tokyo plus a mid-November Taiwan theatrical release confirm a multi-territory path the reviewer sees as best-suited to specialist streaming — meaningful for a director whose recent credits are the Disney+ series 'Women in Taipei.'
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