{ "id": "epgqds9109", "slug": "long-time-no-sea", "title": "Long Time No Sea", "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-2015-to-2019", "label": "Drama films 2015 to 2019", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018", "label": "Drama films 2017 and 2018", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.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.t2001", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.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.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.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.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Long Time No Sea (只有大海知道) is a 2018 Taiwanese family musical drama, Heather Tsui's debut feature, about a Tao boy on Orchid Island training for a national dance competition.", "snippet": "Long Time No Sea (只有大海知道) is a 2018 Taiwanese family musical drama, Heather Tsui's debut feature, about a Tao boy on Orchid Island training for a national dance competition.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-2015-to-2019.drama-films-2017-and-2018", "markdown": "# Long Time No Sea\n\n**Long Time No Sea** (Chinese: 只有大海知道) is a 2018 Taiwanese family musical drama directed by Heather Tsui (崔永徽, Tsui Yung-Hui), her debut feature film. It follows Manawei, a young boy from the Tao indigenous people on Taiwan's outlying Lanyu (Orchid Island), who joins his elementary school's traditional dance troupe as it trains for a national competition, hoping the trip will reunite him with his father working in [Kaohsiung](https://www.edgepedia.org/kaohsiung).[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) The film did not win the Grand Prize at the Taipei Film Awards but won the Special Jury Prize at the 2019 Seattle International Film Festival, and its child lead Chung Chia-chun won Best New Performer at the 55th Golden Horse Awards.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [3](https://www.siff.net/media/news/pr-siff-2019-award-winners) • [4](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1967) • [19](https://streamlined.news/festivals-dear-ex-on-happiness-road-win-at-taipei-film-awards/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 只有大海知道 (Long Time No Sea) |\n| Director and writer | Heather Tsui (崔永徽), her first feature film[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7475882/) |\n| Country, year, runtime | Taiwan, 2018, 96 minutes[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7475882/) |\n| Taiwan release | June 15, 2018[2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) |\n| Basis | Six years in preparation; adapted from the true story of teacher Yan Ziyu and the dance troupe he founded at Lanyu's Yeyou Elementary School in 2006[6](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/406789) |\n| Cast | Mostly non-professional actors from the local Tao (Yami) people; Shang-Ho Huang as the teacher[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) |\n| Major awards | (the Taipei Film Awards Grand Prize was not won by the film; it went to On Happiness Road in 2018); Special Jury Prize, 2019 Seattle International Film Festival; Golden Horse Best New Performer for Chung Chia-chun[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [3](https://www.siff.net/media/news/pr-siff-2019-award-winners) • [4](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1967) • [19](https://streamlined.news/festivals-dear-ex-on-happiness-road-win-at-taipei-film-awards/) |\n| Languages | Mandarin and the Tao (Aboriginal) language[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7475882/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nManawei (Ma Na-Wei) is a boy of the Tao tribe on Lanyu, also called Orchid Island, off southeastern Taiwan. Raised by his grandmother and living frugally, he rarely sees his father, who has left the island for work in the southern city of Kaohsiung, and the money he earns does not reliably reach home.[2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) • [7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) Yearning to reunite with his father, Manawei joins his elementary school's dance troupe, led by a thirtysomething teacher, Yu Zhongxun (Shang-Ho Huang), as the students prepare for the National Indigenous Dance Competition in Kaohsiung.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea)\n\nThe teacher arrives from the city seeing the island as a backward posting and initially treats the dance troupe as a route to a favorable performance evaluation, but he is drawn into the children's lives and stops chiding Manawei for his misbehavior, forming a bond the film builds as its emotional core.[2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) • [7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) As students and teacher prepare for the competition, they explore their potential and reclaim lost pride and courage.[2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea)\n\n## Origins and production\n\nThe film is based on the director's real-life experiences and on the story of Yan Ziyu, a teacher from Taiwan proper who began teaching at Lanyu's Yeyou Elementary School in 2006 and founded a traditional song-and-dance troupe there, leading Tao children to wear traditional loincloths again, embrace their own culture, and compete nationally.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [6](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/406789) Tsui, previously a documentary director and television producer, spent six years preparing the film through long observation and fieldwork on the island.[4](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1967) • [6](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/406789)\n\n**Funding and authenticity.** Production cost nearly NT$30 million, and the team turned to the Zeczec crowdfunding platform to pay for premieres on Lanyu and in Taipei.[6](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/406789) To preserve authenticity, Tsui largely did not use professional actors: she hired teachers to give performance classes on Lanyu and drew the cast almost entirely from local Yami (Tao) people, with the mainland-trained Shang-Ho Huang the key professional exception.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) Liao Jing-yao's cinematography showcases Orchid Island without slipping into travelogue, and key underwater sequences carry a poetic quality within the film's realist tone.[7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) The score combines occasional music by the award-winning composer Cincin Lee with traditional Tao folk songs.[8](https://filmuforia.com/long-time-no-sea-2018/)\n\n## Cast and performances\n\nThe child lead Manawei is played by Chung Chia-chun (鍾家駿, also credited as Si Pangoyod), a non-professional young actor from the Tao community.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) Critics singled out his range, moving from glee to sullenness to heartbreak, and the Golden Horse Festival jury awarded him Best New Performer at the 55th Golden Horse Awards in 2018.[7](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/) • [4](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1967) He also won Best Young Actor for the role at the Minsk International Film Festival in Belarus.[9](https://culturedays.ca/en/events/5a95968d-8177-45d3-b887-12d46ebbf252) Feng-Ying Lee plays the grandmother, and [Zhang Ling](https://www.edgepedia.org/zhang-ling) plays Chin-yi, a local radio host and love interest for the teacher.[5](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7475882/) • [8](https://filmuforia.com/long-time-no-sea-2018/)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nThe film premiered in the Asian Future section of the 31st Tokyo International Film Festival in 2018 and opened in Taiwan on June 15, 2018.[10](https://eiga.com/movie/89862/) • [2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) It went on to festival screenings in Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United States, Canada, and South Korea between 2018 and 2020.[2](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea) At the 45th Seattle International Film Festival in 2019 it was nominated for the New Directors Competition and won the Special Jury Prize, with the jury citing Tsui's commitment to ensuring that stories of unseen communities are told.[3](https://www.siff.net/media/news/pr-siff-2019-award-winners) • [11](https://la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=998&s=24759) It did not win the Grand Prize at the Taipei Film Awards, which went to [On Happiness Road](https://www.edgepedia.org/on-happiness-road) in 2018, but at the 2019 Taoyuan Film Festival it took the Taiwan Award for Best Film, with Chung winning Best Actor and a Future Star award.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) • [12](https://nhuir.nhu.edu.tw/ir/bitstream/987654321/29869/1/111NHU00375005-001.pdf) • [19](https://streamlined.news/festivals-dear-ex-on-happiness-road-win-at-taipei-film-awards/) In Taiwan the film earned NT$4.16 million at the Taipei box office by November 2018.[13](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/flcn65732902/?CFID=5009954&CFTOKEN=14929924)\n\nVariety's Richard Kuipers wrote that Tsui's screenplay balances gentle humor and non-melodramatic heartache en route to a climax on the big stage at Kaohsiung, and the Melbourne International Film Festival program called it a charming debut that is funny, sweet, and entertaining while foregrounding cultural identity, family responsibility, and the preservation of Indigenous experience.[14](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/long_time_no_sea) • [1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea)\n\n## Themes and title\n\nThe film addresses cultural identity, family responsibility, and the preservation of Indigenous experience, themes grounded in the Tao people's situation on Lanyu.[1](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea) Scholars have read it within a body of twenty-first-century Taiwanese films about the island's indigenous tribes, in which questions of land ownership and the significance of the sea to indigenous experience are central, and in which the use of non-professional actors ties performance to environment.[15](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/60198/chapter-abstract/519985005)\n\nThe title itself is a metaphor for missing and longing: Manawei misses the joyful life of swimming under the sea with his father and longs for his father's care, and everything the characters experience is associated with the sea, which the Tao regard as a source of life and blessings.[16](https://www.tjtesol.org/attachments/article/472/2.%20Negotiating%20Cultural%20Conceptualizations%20in%20Films%20Through%20a%20Cultural%20Linguistics%20Approach%20Implications%20for%20Intercultural%20ELF%20Communication%20Education.pdf) The theme song, *Tears of the Ocean*, has lyrics written by Tsui herself, sung mainly in Mandarin with a chorus in the Tao language, and its sea imagery carries the characters' hopes, fears, and pride in their hard-working fisherman fathers.[16](https://www.tjtesol.org/attachments/article/472/2.%20Negotiating%20Cultural%20Conceptualizations%20in%20Films%20Through%20a%20Cultural%20Linguistics%20Approach%20Implications%20for%20Intercultural%20ELF%20Communication%20Education.pdf)\n\n## Other uses of the title\n\nThe title has also been used for unrelated works: *Long Time No Sea* is a romantic comedy novel by the British author Portia MacIntosh, in which a woman in her thirties joins an expenses-paid reunion holiday in Italy with old school friends and re-encounters a past love triangle, and *Long Time No See* (2017) is a South Korean romance-action film about two hitmen who fall in love.[17](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229831961-long-time-no-sea) • [18](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20174185)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Long Time No Sea, Melbourne International Film Festival archive](https://miff.com.au/festival-archive/films/30606/long-time-no-sea)\n2. [Long Time No Sea, TheTVDB.com](https://thetvdb.com/movies/long-time-no-sea)\n3. [SIFF 2019 Award Winners, Seattle International Film Festival](https://www.siff.net/media/news/pr-siff-2019-award-winners)\n4. [只有大海知道, Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival archive](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/1967)\n5. [Long Time No Sea (2018), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7475882/)\n6. [《只有大海知道》達悟孩子尋根之旅搬上大螢幕, Rti 中央廣播電臺](https://www.rti.org.tw/news/view/id/406789)\n7. [REVIEW: Long Time No Sea (2018), FictionMachine](https://fictionmachine.com/2018/12/17/review-long-time-no-sea-2018/)\n8. [Long Time No Sea (2018) review, Filmuforia](https://filmuforia.com/long-time-no-sea-2018/)\n9. [Long Time No Sea movie watching, Culture Days 2019](https://culturedays.ca/en/events/5a95968d-8177-45d3-b887-12d46ebbf252)\n10. [海だけが知っている, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/89862/)\n11. [Taiwanese Film \"Long Time No Sea\" nominated for New Directors Competition in 2019 SIFF, Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles](https://la.us.taiwan.culture.tw/News_Content.aspx?n=998&s=24759)\n12. [Aboriginal films, singing and sports (thesis, National University of Kaohsiung)](https://nhuir.nhu.edu.tw/ir/bitstream/987654321/29869/1/111NHU00375005-001.pdf)\n13. [只有大海知道, 開眼電影網](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/film/flcn65732902/?CFID=5009954&CFTOKEN=14929924)\n14. [Long Time No Sea, Rotten Tomatoes](https://static.rottentomatoes.com/m/long_time_no_sea)\n15. [Christopher Brown, \"Indigenous Land and Sea,\" in Mapping Taiwanese Cinema, 2008-20, Edinburgh University Press](https://academic.oup.com/edinburgh-scholarship-online/book/60198/chapter-abstract/519985005)\n16. [Negotiating Cultural Conceptualizations in Films Through a Cultural Linguistics Approach, TESOL journal PDF](https://www.tjtesol.org/attachments/article/472/2.%20Negotiating%20Cultural%20Conceptualizations%20in%20Films%20Through%20a%20Cultural%20Linguistics%20Approach%20Implications%20for%20Intercultural%20ELF%20Communication%20Education.pdf)\n17. [Long Time No Sea by Portia MacIntosh, Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/229831961-long-time-no-sea)\n18. [Long Time No See (2017), Korean Film Archive](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/eng/films/index/filmsView.jsp?movieCd=20174185)\n19. [FESTIVALS: 'On Happiness Road', 'Dear Ex' Win At Taipei Film Awards - Streamlined](https://streamlined.news/festivals-dear-ex-on-happiness-road-win-at-taipei-film-awards/)\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 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2017 and 2018*\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/long-time-no-sea", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea.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": "\"Long Time No Sea\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Long Time No Sea](https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea](https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Long Time No Sea\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/long-time-no-sea. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Long Time No Sea is a 2018 Taiwanese family musical drama, Heather Tsui's debut feature, about a Tao boy on Orchid Island training for a national dance competition." }