Poet Shang Qin’s The Cat Who Walks Through the Wall presents a timeless philosophical proposition: "Happiness is the half that people have never obtained." Through insightful commentary by poet Hung Hung and novelist Yi-Chin Lo, this episode examines how longing transforms into an elusive phantom, and captures how the band 1976 translates this blend of humor and melancholia into music. Journeying to the War Remnants Museum in Vietnam, the creators reflect on their own visions of happiness under the shadow of cross-strait and geopolitical tension. More than a cross-generational literary deconstruction, this film is an intimate exploration of love, human kindness, and gentleness in an uncertain modern age.
Can a single poem change the world? "Like a Rolling Poem 2" continues the spirit of poetry-based musical documentary, filming and producing six poems transformed into songs — confronting the existential questions of our time head-on: "I Want to Live with You" explores loneliness and longing for self; "Lullaby of the North-Link Railway" gazes at the turning of eras and the fear of farewell; "A Romantic Thing" dissects trauma and the pathological attachment born from love and hatred sharing the same root; "The Cat That Walks Through Walls" reflects on the illusion and imperfection amid historical displacement; "Watching for a Longer While" overturns the equivalence between love and hatred, choosing tenderness instead; and finally, "Doomsday Blues" faces geopolitical crisis head-on, finding resilience in the everyday. This is not only an encounter between modern poetry and contemporary music, but also a philosophical inquiry into humanity. Even if the world is but an illusion, a fleeting dream, we still hold the freedom to choose kindness and love — and with that, we keep beating, keep rolling on.
