To be a Normal One During Abnormal Times

During Taiwan’s Level 3 Alert, the idea of a “normal life” felt impossibly distant. While many responded with anxiety, fear, and blame, others quietly held onto their values and beliefs—trying to preserve what it means to be a “normal person.” This curated selection features five films from China, the United States, the former Soviet Union, Hong Kong, and Taiwan—each portraying a life caught between individual freedom and overwhelming systems: totalitarian regimes or capitalist monopolies. Some are artists, some are not. Some succeed, others don’t. Most drift through a world where “success” has no real meaning. And yet, despite immense, shadowy powers and marginal existences, it is the modest desire to live as a “normal person” that sustains our will to move forward. In the end, mutual understanding remains our greatest force of momentum.