In this unusual film-the first Taiwanese documentary to achieve commercial success-we are treated to a series of affectionate vignettes of life in filmmaker Hu Tai-Li's mother-in-law's village before large portions of it are destroyed to make way for the new East-West highway. Intimate family scenes are interwoven with a funeral (necessitating the removal of the mother-in-law out of earshot, lest she dwell on her own old age), a spring festival and celebration of the Chinese New Year, offerings to the gods and spirits, rice fields being tilled, small manufacturing factories struggling to get by, the election of the provincial governor, and graves being exhumed and their contents transferred to family urns so that they will be preserved and their descendants blessed. In the final scenes, Tai-Li stands by villagers as they witness their old homes being razed to the ground and take off for their new life in nearby urban developments.-Barbash/Taylor