After browsing through the official web site of Viva Tonal, I found that the movie-version DVD could only be bought from the head store of Eslite Books. I went there to buy it in a raining day and couldn't wait to see it in the next day. The movie is the winner of best documentary of Golden Horse Award 2003. One of the directors happens to be my high school classmate's older sister. This relationship is the initial reason that drew me to wanting to see the movie.
Viva Tonal - The Dance Age tries to search and rebuild the hey day of Taiwanese pop music during the island being a colony of Japan. A zealous collector of antique LP plays the protagonist who brings us into the quest. Before long, we are among a group of elders sitting around a table in a restaurant called Bolero. One of them, an old lady, is singing the movie's introductory song, The Dance Age - the first Taiwanese pop song recorded in LP. The old lady is actually a singer during the hey day; other elders are all colleagues of the same record company. Slowly, the movie unfolds a romance of a pop music diva, the Japan's invasion into China, the start of Pacific War and the bombing of Taipei City that eventually blasted the record company.
Toward the end, the diva has died, the war is over and The Dance Age no longer exists. The directors are optimistic though, saying that we are building another Dance Age, our age. That I also believe firmly.

• Listen to The Dance Age.
• Read my previous post about the movie.