# The Village of No Return (健忘村)
**The Village of No Return** (健忘村) is a 2017 Taiwanese-Chinese fantasy comedy film directed by Chen Yu-hsun (陳玉勳), in which a con man posing as a Taoist priest arrives at a remote village with a helmet that erases memories, remaking the community while a violent conspiracy closes in around it.[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) • [2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/) It stars [Shu Qi](https://www.edgepedia.org/shu-qi), Wang Qianyuan, Joseph Chang, Lin Mei-hsiu, Yo Yang, and [Eric Tsang](https://www.edgepedia.org/eric-tsang), runs 116 minutes, and was produced by Lee Lieh and Yeh Ju-feng.[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / writers | Chen Yu-hsun, co-written with Chang Yao-sheng; produced by Lee Lieh and Yeh Ju-feng[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) |
| Country / year | Taiwan and China co-production, 2017; martial arts comedy[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) |
| Runtime | 116 minutes[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) |
| Budget | Over NT$300 million, with crew drawn from China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Korea, and Taiwan[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) • [4](https://www.twreporter.org/a/director-chen-yu-hsun) |
| Central device | The "Worry Ridder" (忘憂), a helmet that removes memories from people's minds[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/) |
| Awards | NETPAC Award at the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival; Golden Horse nominations for Best Leading Actress, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup & Costume Design[5](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/projects/the-village-of-no-return) |
| Mainland box office | 16.02 million yuan cumulative as of October 6, 2024[6](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
The story is set in the early Republican era, after the fall of the [Qing dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/qing-dynasty), in the remote and isolated Desire Village (裕旺村, Yu Wang Village). The villagers are absorbed in everyday conflicts and complicated relationships, unaware that the wealthy Squire Shih (Eric Tsang), who suspects the village harbors a treasure, is conspiring with bandits to wipe out the town.[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) • [2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/)
A mysterious Taoist priest, Fortune Tien (Wang Qianyuan), arrives carrying the "Worry Ridder," a magical helmet that can remove memories from people's minds. The villagers try it and forget their turbulent pasts, living on with entirely different identities in an apparently happy state, while a dangerous plot unfolds behind their backs.[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_village_of_no_return) In the backstory, Tien woke in a cave a year earlier wearing the helmet with his memory blank, and came to the village searching for a treasure called "Huihun" that could restore what the Worry Ridder had erased.[6](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330) Autumn (Shu Qi), the widow of the squire's poisoned mole Big Pie, is suspected of his murder, and the self-professed martial arts master Chan Master Wan (Joseph Chang) comes to her defense.[2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/)
## Production
**Scale and setting.** The film was Chen Yu-hsun's fourth feature and his first cross-strait co-production, with a budget of over NT$300 million and crew from five territories, which he described as the biggest gamble of his directing career.[4](https://www.twreporter.org/a/director-chen-yu-hsun) Although the story is set in a remote village in southwest China, it was shot entirely in Taiwan: a full physical village set was built in Manzhou Township, Pingtung over more than half a year, with additional locations in Hsinchu, Nantou, and [Kaohsiung](https://www.edgepedia.org/kaohsiung).[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) • [8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx) The sets were fully functional, with inhabitable houses, a real suspension bridge, grown crops, and raised livestock; after filming the village set was dismantled, with costumes and props later displayed at the Hayashi Department Store in Tainan.[9](https://www.ganjingworld.com/article/1ifii79k7fk3dedyNc7GGPpe81631c) • [8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx)
**Development.** Chen and co-writer Chang Yao-sheng, a novelist, worked on the script for over a year, at one point planning a "forgetting trilogy"; the three-part structure was condensed into the finished film, whose first cut ran 190 minutes. The idea of erasing memory grew out of Chen's short film *Hippocamp Hair Salon* from the 2011 anthology *10+10*.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192)
**Craft.** The Worry Ridder prop was designed with a rotating seahorse motif carried over from the short film, a live silkworm inside that spins out deleted memories as cocoons, breathing sound effects, and hand-shaped control handles; its look drew on Second World War German experimental apparatus.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) Composer Wang Shi-wen spent a year on the score, blending Western music with Chinese instruments, and the bandit-postman gang performs with beatbox and a cappella instead of instruments.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) • [2](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/) A Korean action team staged the fight scenes; one bandit night-raid sequence took fifteen nights of shooting, filmed at 1,000 frames per second with high-speed cameras and corn-starch powder effects under 50,000-watt lights mounted on cranes.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192)
## Release and reception
The film premiered globally in Kaohsiung on January 21, 2017, ahead of the [Lunar New Year](https://www.edgepedia.org/lunar-new-year) holiday.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx) Sources disagree on the exact opening dates: the sales agent Ablaze Image lists January 26, 2017 for Taiwan,[1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) while the Chinese encyclopedia entry Baike gives January 27, 2017 for mainland China and January 28, 2017 for Taiwan.[6](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330) A Vietnamese release was also planned.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx)
**Political controversy.** Before release, mainland media labeled Chen a supporter of the [Sunflower Student Movement](https://www.edgepedia.org/sunflower-student-movement)'s position (an "anti-trade-agreement director"), and he was accused of supporting Taiwan independence; Chen publicly denied this, calling the label undeserved, and according to the entertainment outlet Jiemian, the original mainland distributor Wanda Pictures gave up the film's mainland distribution rights.[8](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx) • [10](https://www.jiemian.com/article/1103227.html) • [11](https://time.com/4640566/taiwan-silence-scorsese-movies-china/)
**Festivals and awards.** The film won the NETPAC Award at the 21st Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival and was an official selection at the 35th Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival and the New York Asian Film Festival, as well as closing film at the 2017 East Winds Film Festival and a selection at the 11th Balinale International Film Festival.[5](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/projects/the-village-of-no-return) • [1](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/) At the 54th Golden Horse Awards it received three nominations: Best Leading Actress, Best Art Direction, and Best Makeup & Costume Design, and it was also nominated for Best Narrative Feature at the 19th Taipei Film Festival.[5](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/projects/the-village-of-no-return) • [6](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330)
**Commercial and critical outcome.** The film was described in Chinese coverage as acclaimed within the industry but commercially underperforming ("applauded but not crowded"), and its cumulative mainland box office stood at 16.02 million yuan as of October 6, 2024.[12](https://hall.pku.edu.cn/zxdt/jtxw/c2addf3d687d4299bd841e2d34aba83a.htm) • [6](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330) Reviewers were divided: Far East Films found the humor suffocated by self-conscious quirkiness and rated it 3 out of 5,[13](https://fareastfilms.com/review/the-village-of-no-return/) while an audience review on Rotten Tomatoes called it a light-hearted comedy on the chaos of memory loss with a meaningful message about even painful memories.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_village_of_no_return)
## Themes
The film's core is memory and desire. Chen and Chang located the story's center in personal identity and human greed: memory forms the self and its wants, and the villagers' repeated brainwashing resets names, statuses, and relationships as if nothing had happened.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) The train the villagers await is treated as a symbol of desire unleashed by industrialization, and it ultimately appears in the film as a bicycle bristling with rockets, an example of the absurd register the filmmakers sought.[3](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192) Commentators have read the film as carrying a critique of social systems beneath its wuxia-flavored comedy, and its song lyrics parody the classical poem "[Spring Dawn](https://www.edgepedia.org/spring-dawn)" with the title characters crossed out, an image evoking [Cultural Revolution](https://www.edgepedia.org/cultural-revolution) iconoclasm.[5](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/projects/the-village-of-no-return) • [9](https://www.ganjingworld.com/article/1ifii79k7fk3dedyNc7GGPpe81631c)
## References
1. [The Village of No Return (健忘村), Ablaze Image](https://ablazeimage.com/the-village-of-no-return-info/)
2. [The Village of No Return, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York Asian Film Festival 2017](https://www.filmlinc.org/films/the-village-of-no-return/)
3. [忘了還是要旺！貪婪、記憶與忘卻——專訪《健忘村》導演陳玉勳、編劇張耀升, 放映週報 589期 (2017)](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/6192)
4. [記憶是鑰匙，也是束縛──專訪陳玉勳, 報導者 (2017)](https://www.twreporter.org/a/director-chen-yu-hsun)
5. [The Village of No Return, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/projects/the-village-of-no-return)
6. [健忘村, 快懂百科](https://www.baike.com/wikiid/7194774495172919330)
7. [The Village of No Return, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_village_of_no_return)
8. [被冠反服貿 陳玉勳：無妄之災回歸電影, 中央社 (2017)](https://www.cna.com.tw/news/amov/201701130246.aspx)
9. [The Village of No Return: The "Utopia" of Forgetting, Gan Jing World](https://www.ganjingworld.com/article/1ifii79k7fk3dedyNc7GGPpe81631c)
10. [春节看啥片：《健忘村》居然是一部反乌托邦喜剧, 界面新闻 JMedia (2017)](https://www.jiemian.com/article/1103227.html)
11. [Martin Scorsese's Silence Is a Win for Taiwan but Producers Are Worried About a China Backlash, TIME (2017)](https://time.com/4640566/taiwan-silence-scorsese-movies-china/)
12. [《健忘村》：沉重又唯美的喜剧, 北京大学百周年纪念讲堂 (2017)](https://hall.pku.edu.cn/zxdt/jtxw/c2addf3d687d4299bd841e2d34aba83a.htm)
13. [The Village Of No Return (2017) Review, Far East Films (2018)](https://fareastfilms.com/review/the-village-of-no-return/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Action comedies › Action comedies, 2000 to 2019*
*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*
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