The Free Man

Drama︱29’30”︱2014︱Taiwan︱HD︱NTSC︱Color︱English Subtitles

2014, Best Foreign Short Film Award, Eugene International Film Festival, USA

2014, Finalist, 18th Annual Vancouver Asian Film Festival, Canada

2014, Best Foreign Short Film, Eugene International Film Festival, USA

2014, Finalist, Best Single Drama or Telemovie Programme, Asian Television Awards, Singapore

Just being released on parole, A-Jie works in a laundry store and helps the owner with the laundry. All he hopes for is to wash away his wrongdoings in the past, just as stains are washed off from the clothes. The laundry store is owned by a middle-aged man called Tzai-Tsai., He has a niece, Hsiao-Chih, who suffers from polio. Together, the three people work and live in the shabby old laundry house. 

While Tsai-Tzai and A-Jie handles the clothes, Hsiao-Chih sits at the counter and takes the clients’ orders. She barely talks, except with the clients. She has a gloomy look on her face and seems preoccupied all the time. At some late nights, A-Jie is woken up by Hsiao-Chih’s heavy footsteps of her metal shoes. From time to time, he can even hear her sobbing and the sound of the flowing water coming from the bathroom.

One day in the laundry store, A-Jie accidentally sees something that he is not supposed to see, and everything begins to spin out of control….

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About Public Television Service Foundation

Founded in 1998, Public Television Service (PTS) is the leading public service broadcaster in Taiwan. Operated as an independent public organization, PTS aims to provide value-added quality programming services covering a wide range of categories to present the diversity and creativity in Taiwan without the intervention of commercial and political power.