# Touch of the Light (逆光飞翔)
**Touch of the Light** (逆光飛翔) is a 2012 Taiwanese drama directed by Chang Jung-chi (張榮吉), based on the true story of Huang Yu-siang (黃裕翔), a pianist blind from birth who leaves his family home to study piano at a university in Taipei, and who plays himself in the film.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) The film premiered internationally in the New Currents competition at the 17th Busan International Film Festival, opened in Taiwan on 21 September 2012, and was chosen as Taiwan's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) • [2](https://pda.atmovies.com.tw/app2/film.cfm?action=filmdata&filmid=fttw46705043) • [3](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/touch-of-the-light/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director / screenwriter | Chang Jung-chi; screenplay by Li Nien-hsiu (李念修)[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) |
| Lead cast | Huang Yu-siang as himself; Sandrine Pinna (張榕容) as Xiao Jie; Lee Lieh (李烈) as Yu-siang's mother[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ni_guang_fei_xiang) |
| Production | Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China; 110 minutes; produced by Jet Tone Films Ltd.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) |
| Taiwan release | 21 September 2012[2](https://pda.atmovies.com.tw/app2/film.cfm?action=filmdata&filmid=fttw46705043) |
| Major awards | Golden Horse Awards 2012: Best New Director and FIPRESCI Prize; Taipei Film Festival 2012: Audience Choice Award and Best Actress[5](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135) • [6](https://news.pts.org.tw/article/221598) |
| Festival premiere | 17th Busan International Film Festival, New Currents competition, 2012[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) |
| Oscar entry | Taiwan's submission for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards[3](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/touch-of-the-light/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film follows Yu-siang, a young man blind from birth with a special talent for piano, as he leaves his rural home for the first time and enrolls at a university in Taipei to study music.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) He insists on not entering piano competitions, wanting to live like everyone else rather than be treated as an object of sympathy; a childhood memory underlies this refusal, after he overheard competitors saying he only won because he was blind.[7](https://www.audaud.com/touch-of-the-light-2012/) • [8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-gdDBActE)
At university he meets Xiao Jie, a young woman who works in a drink shop and has given up her dream of dancing because her family could not afford the education she needed.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) A chance meeting when she helps him cross a street begins a close friendship in which each encourages the other: she is inspired by his determination to resume pursuing dance, while he regains the confidence to perform again.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012) • [7](https://www.audaud.com/touch-of-the-light-2012/) The film keeps the relationship platonic, focusing on mutual support rather than romance.[9](https://www.jbspins.com/2013/08/aaiff-13-touch-of-light.html) The story culminates with Xiao Jie's dance audition and Yu-siang performing with his campus music club at a competition.[7](https://www.audaud.com/touch-of-the-light-2012/)
## Origins and production
**From documentary to feature.** Chang Jung-chi, born in Taipei in 1980 and a graduate of the Graduate School of Applied Media Arts at the National Taiwan University of Arts, first met Huang Yu-siang in 2005 while filming the Presidential Education Award ceremony, which honors students who overcome adversity.[10](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/news/newsView.jsp?seq=1883) • [11](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/9528) Observing how much effort everyday tasks cost a blind person, Chang made the documentary short *Prelude* (序曲) and then the semi-documentary fiction short *The End of the Tunnel* (天黑), which won Best Creative Short Film at the 2008 Taipei Film Awards.[12](https://www.filmcommission.taipei/newsCT.aspx?id=7896&pid=65) Wong Kar Wai, the Hong Kong director whose Jet Tone Films produced the feature, saw *The End of the Tunnel* and encouraged Chang to add other characters and expand the story, which led to *Touch of the Light*.[11](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/9528) • [13](https://yule.sohu.com/20130412/n372437991.shtml) The Busan festival program notes that the feature is a version of that earlier short.[1](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012)
**Casting a non-actor.** Chang spent about a year auditioning trained actors for the lead and found that none could convincingly portray blind behavior, the small unconscious expressions and movements of a blind person.[14](https://www.playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=1087&type=focusonstar) The script was then rewritten around Huang's own personality so that he could play himself, and he took acting classes to learn to express emotion on camera.[14](https://www.playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=1087&type=focusonstar) Huang was 25 at the time of release and had become the first visually impaired student in Taiwan permitted to major in piano in a university music department, after a government official who heard him play allowed an exception to an unwritten rule barring blind students from a piano major.[6](https://news.pts.org.tw/article/221598) • [15](https://hre.pro.edu.tw/vedu/4103)
**Dance and music.** The Taiwanese modern dancer Hsu Fang-yi (許芳宜) served as dance advisor, appeared as Xiao Jie's dance teacher in her film debut, and was a reference point while the script was written; Chang cited her book about finding confidence as an influence.[5](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135) • [6](https://news.pts.org.tw/article/221598) Huang also worked on the film's piano-based score; the French cinematographer Dylan Doyle used backlighting and silhouettes to convey a blind person's visual experience, and the piano and dance sequences interlock the two protagonists' storylines.[16](https://screenanarchy.com/amp/2013/04/udine-2013-review-touch-of-the-light-offers-a-polite-reminder-not-to-abandon-your-dreams.html) • [5](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135) • [17](https://www.lecinemadanslesyeux.com/touch-of-the-light/)
## Reception and awards
At the 2012 Taipei Film Festival the film won the Audience Choice Award and Best Actress for Sandrine Pinna, her second Taipei Film Award for Best Actress.[6](https://news.pts.org.tw/article/221598) • [15](https://hre.pro.edu.tw/vedu/4103) At the 49th Golden Horse Awards, held on 24 November 2012, Chang won Best New Director and the film received the FIPRESCI (International Critics) Prize.[5](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135) • [18](https://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?id=621915&indexCode=Culture_Object) It was also nominated in the New Currents competition at Busan and screened in the [Generation](https://www.edgepedia.org/generation) section of the 2013 [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival).[2](https://pda.atmovies.com.tw/app2/film.cfm?action=filmdata&filmid=fttw46705043) • [5](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135)
The film was selected as Taiwan's entry for Best Foreign Language Film at the 85th Academy Awards.[3](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/touch-of-the-light/) • [18](https://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?id=621915&indexCode=Culture_Object) Critics generally praised the performances and the restrained treatment of an inspirational premise: reviewers highlighted Huang's quiet, believable presence, Pinna's expressiveness, and Lee Lieh's portrayal of the mother, while some found the plot formulaic.[16](https://screenanarchy.com/amp/2013/04/udine-2013-review-touch-of-the-light-offers-a-polite-reminder-not-to-abandon-your-dreams.html) • [9](https://www.jbspins.com/2013/08/aaiff-13-touch-of-light.html) • [3](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/touch-of-the-light/) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 84% audience score.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ni_guang_fei_xiang) In South Korea, where it opened on 14 March 2013, it sold 14,323 tickets.[19](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=37586)
When Huang received the FIPRESCI prize at the Golden Horse Film Festival, he told the audience that he was happy to win but sad because he would never see how he played the role.[17](https://www.lecinemadanslesyeux.com/touch-of-the-light/)
## References
1. [Busan International Film Festival archive: Touch of the Light, New Currents 2012](https://www.biff.kr/eng/html/archive/arc_history_view.asp?kind=history&m_idx=6939&pyear=2012)
2. [開眼電影網：逆光飛翔 Touch of the Light](https://pda.atmovies.com.tw/app2/film.cfm?action=filmdata&filmid=fttw46705043)
3. [Touch of the Light, Video Librarian review by P. Hall (2015)](https://videolibrarian.com/reviews/film/touch-of-the-light/)
4. [Touch of the Light, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ni_guang_fei_xiang)
5. [台北金馬影展：逆光飛翔](https://goldenhorse.org.tw/fpp/completed/detail/2135)
6. [公視新聞網：勵志片逆光飛翔 全盲鋼琴家擔主角 (2012)](https://news.pts.org.tw/article/221598)
7. [Touch of the Light (2012), Audiophile Audition review by John Sunier (2015)](https://www.audaud.com/touch-of-the-light-2012/)
8. [《逆光飛翔》正式預告, ifilm傳影互動, YouTube (2012)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ED-gdDBActE)
9. [J.B. Spins: AAIFF '13: Touch of the Light (2013)](https://www.jbspins.com/2013/08/aaiff-13-touch-of-light.html)
10. [KOFIC KOBIZ news: director CHANG Jung-Chi profile](https://www.koreanfilm.or.kr/mobile3/news/newsView.jsp?seq=1883)
11. [放映週報：《逆光飛翔》導演張榮吉專訪 (2012)](https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/9528)
12. [台北市電影委員會：專訪《逆光飛翔》導演張榮吉 (2012)](https://www.filmcommission.taipei/newsCT.aspx?id=7896&pid=65)
13. [搜狐娛樂：專訪《逆光飞翔》導演 (2013)](https://yule.sohu.com/20130412/n372437991.shtml)
14. [PlayMusic音樂網：專訪《逆光飛翔》導演張榮吉](https://www.playmusic.tw/column_info.php?id=1087&type=focusonstar)
15. [教育部人權教育資源網：《逆光飛翔》請你聽見我 (2019)](https://hre.pro.edu.tw/vedu/4103)
16. [ScreenAnarchy: Udine 2013 Review, Touch of the Light (2013)](https://screenanarchy.com/amp/2013/04/udine-2013-review-touch-of-the-light-offers-a-polite-reminder-not-to-abandon-your-dreams.html)
17. [Le cinéma dans les yeux: Touch of the light (2012)](https://www.lecinemadanslesyeux.com/touch-of-the-light/)
18. [國家文化記憶庫：張榮吉獲49屆金馬「最佳新導演獎」](https://tcmb.culture.tw/zh-tw/detail?id=621915&indexCode=Culture_Object)
19. [씨네21：터치 오브 라이트 상세정보](https://cine21.com/movie/info/?movie_id=37586)
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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 › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2010 to 2014 › Romantic and coming-of-age drama films*
*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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