{ "id": "ep7evk2np3", "slug": "coo-coo-043", "title": "Coo-Coo 043", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2023-and-2024", "label": "Drama films 2023 and 2024", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2023-and-2024" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2023-and-2024.alpha-a-to-g", "label": "Titles A to G", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2023-and-2024.alpha-a-to-g" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 2021 and later: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021", "label": "China · 2021 and later", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2021.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Coo-Coo 043 (一家子兒咕咕叫) is a 2022 Taiwanese family drama by Chan Ching-lin about a racing pigeon's return after seven years; it won Best Narrative Feature and Best New Performer at the 59th Golden Horse Awards.", "snippet": "Coo-Coo 043 (一家子兒咕咕叫) is a 2022 Taiwanese family drama by Chan Ching-lin about a racing pigeon's return after seven years; it won Best Narrative Feature and Best New Performer at the 59th Golden Horse Awards.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2023-and-2024.alpha-a-to-g", "markdown": "# Coo-Coo 043\n\n**Coo-Coo 043** (一家子儿咕咕叫) is a 2022 Taiwanese family drama film directed by Chan Ching-lin (詹京霖), in which the return of a lost racing pigeon reopens the wounds of a family whose son disappeared seven years earlier. It won Best Narrative Feature at the 59th Golden Horse Awards and opened the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival.[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/) • [2](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 一家子儿咕咕叫 (Yi jia zi er gu gu jiao)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22335454/) |\n| Director and writer | Chan Ching-lin (詹京霖), his second feature[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/) • [4](https://fipresci.org/report/taipei-diezmartinez-2022/) |\n| Cast | Yu An-shun (游安顺), Yang Li-yin (杨丽音), Hu Jhih-ciang (胡智强), Rimong Ihwar (李梦苡桦)[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/) |\n| Runtime and genre | 135 minutes; family and fantasy[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/) |\n| Production | Atom Cinema (原子映象有限公司); producers Lin I-ling and Lin Shih-ken[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/) |\n| Golden Horse Awards 2022 | Best Narrative Feature, Best New Performer (Hu Jhih-ciang), and FIPRESCI Prize; 13 nominations in total[2](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93) • [5](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/news/detail/1811) |\n| Release | Opening film of the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival; Taiwan theatrical release November 18, 2022[2](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22335454/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nThe story centers on a family in rural southern Taiwan that makes its living from pigeon racing. In the film's opening, race pigeon 043, which vanished from a competition seven years before, suddenly flies back to the family's coop. The pigeon was not the only one lost that year: the family's son, Shih, disappeared at the same time, and his absence remains an unhealed wound for his father, the pigeon master Ching (阿钦师).[6](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/ImageData/320/2023/89647/10774.pdf)\n\nThe household is already strained. Ching is absorbed in pigeon racing, his wife Ming worries about the family's finances, their daughter Lulu longs to leave, and the ailing grandfather is nearing the end of his life. The son's death certificate has never been filed, leaving his status unresolved.[7](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/programme/films/detail/3337?search_category=FF&search_year=2022) The fragile peace breaks when Lulu brings home Tig, a homeless boy injured in a beating, who decides to learn pigeon keeping from Ching. Lulu then leaves abruptly and never returns, Ming is tempted to follow, and the grandfather's death is the final blow that scatters the family.[6](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/ImageData/320/2023/89647/10774.pdf)\n\nThe film's premise draws a deliberate parallel between the homing pigeon and the missing son. As the FIPRESCI jury noted, the return of the bird awakens Ching's desire to compete again, further distancing him from his wife and daughter even as a new household seems to form around Tig.[4](https://fipresci.org/report/taipei-diezmartinez-2022/)\n\n## Director and production\n\n**Chan Ching-lin**, born in 1980, is a filmmaker whose work focuses on poor and marginalized people in Taiwan. His short film *A Breath from the Bottom* (2012) won him Best Director at the 2013 Taipei Film Festival, and his first feature, *The Island that All Flow By* (2016), set against Taiwan's national highways, was nominated for Best New Director at both the Golden Horse Awards and the Xining FIRST International Film Festival.[8](https://taiwanfilmfest.org/coo-coo-043) *Coo-Coo 043* was his second feature, and the project was selected for the 2021 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion's works-in-progress section before completion.[4](https://fipresci.org/report/taipei-diezmartinez-2022/) • [9](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/12400)\n\nThe film blends realist drama with fantasy imagery, continuing Chan's attention to people on society's margins while taking on the unusual subject of Taiwan's pigeon-racing culture.[7](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/programme/films/detail/3337?search_category=FF&search_year=2022) The production built its family home set in Daliao, Kaohsiung, and added a three-story-tall pigeon coop on the roof; Chan required the structure to have a towering point and an open, see-through build, so that the family members below, each with their own secrets, appear to watch one another as the birds circle above.[10](https://www.biosmonthly.com/article/11159)\n\n## Pigeon racing in Taiwan\n\nThe film's central metaphor comes from how the sport actually works. Races release pigeons from more than 300 kilometers out at sea, and the birds fly back to the coop that is their home and birthplace, using their instinct to return. Weather and pigeon-catching gangs mean many birds never make it back, and Chan has said his real interest was not the competition itself but the question of where the lost pigeons go and whether they might still be alive somewhere.[11](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/38263) A documentary account of the industry describes pigeon racing in Taiwan as a national obsession in which more than 30,000 racers chase dreams of fame and fortune.[12](https://www.tidf.org.tw/en/films/42994)\n\n## Awards and reception\n\n*Coo-Coo 043* premiered as the opening film of the 2022 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and won the FIPRESCI (international critics) prize on the night of the Golden Horse ceremony.[2](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93) At the 59th Golden Horse Awards it received 13 nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Yu An-shun, both supporting acting categories, Best New Performer, Best Original Screenplay, art direction, costume design, original film score, editing, and sound effects.[5](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/news/detail/1811) It won Best Narrative Feature and Best New Performer for Hu Jhih-ciang.[2](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93)\n\nThe film later received seven nominations at the 2023 Taipei Film Festival, screened at the 2023 Seattle International Film Festival, and won Best Actor for Yu An-shun at the 2023 Taiwan Film Critics Society Awards.[13](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2023-program/coo-coo-043) The FIPRESCI jury wrote that the film's double win, the critics' prize and the Golden Horse Best Film Award, showed that this dark, stylized family melodrama had struck a chord in contemporary Taiwanese society.[4](https://fipresci.org/report/taipei-diezmartinez-2022/)\n\n## References\n\n1. [COO-COO 043, Taiwan Pavilion Presented by TAICCA](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/coo-coo-043-2/)\n2. [Taiwanese Family Drama 'Coo-Coo 043' Wins Best Film At Golden Horse Awards, Distribution Workshop (Variety)](https://www.distributionworkshop.com/portal_b3_page.php?button_num=b3&movie_num=93)\n3. [Coo-Coo 043 (2022), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22335454/)\n4. [Genres And Breakdowns, FIPRESCI report by Ernesto Diezmartínez (2022)](https://fipresci.org/report/taipei-diezmartinez-2022/)\n5. [2022金馬影展開幕片《一家子兒咕咕叫》熱鬧揭幕, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/news/detail/1811)\n6. [COO-COO 043 synopsis, Taiwan Cinema](https://taiwancinema.bamid.gov.tw/ImageData/320/2023/89647/10774.pdf)\n7. [一家子兒咕咕叫, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival programme page](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/programme/films/detail/3337?search_category=FF&search_year=2022)\n8. [Coo-Coo 043, Taiwan Film Festival of Boston](https://taiwanfilmfest.org/coo-coo-043)\n9. [一家子兒咕咕叫, Golden Horse Film Project Promotion completed projects](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/12400)\n10. [落地姿勢──專訪詹京霖《一家子兒咕咕叫》, BIOS monthly](https://www.biosmonthly.com/article/11159)\n11. [在賽鴿的世界，看見「向死而生」的旅程：專訪《一家子兒咕咕叫》導演詹京霖, 放映週報](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/38263)\n12. [The Pigeon Game, Taiwan International Documentary Festival](https://www.tidf.org.tw/en/films/42994)\n13. [COO-COO 043, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2023-program/coo-coo-043)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2023 and 2024 › Titles A to G*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Coo-Coo 043\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Coo-Coo 043](https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043](https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Coo-Coo 043\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/coo-coo-043. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Coo-Coo 043 is a 2022 Taiwanese family drama by Chan Ching-lin about a racing pigeon's return after seven years; it won Best Narrative Feature and Best New Performer at the 59th Golden Horse Awards." }