The Strait Story

The year is 1943 and Taiwan is under Japanese colonization After finishing his studies in Japan famous Taiwanese sculptor and painter ChingCheng Huang receives an offer to teach in Beiping Art School He decides to visit friends and family back home before leaving for China He boards the passenger liner Takachiho Maru in Kobe Japan with his girlfriend a pianist Tragically the luxurious liner is torpedoed by an American submarine and sinks off the coast of Keelung Taiwan Decades later Shoushou a fine art restorer with a crippling illness finds one of Huangs paintings in an exhibition As she restores the painting Shoushou learns about the artist the stories behind his work and his death at sea She recreates the story of the painting Woman in Black and romantically imagines the ways the artist painted his girlfriend The more she studies the more she was inspired by Huangs value of art and of life Restoring Huangs painting thus becomes Shoushous way of