Shiba San and Meow Chan

Shiba San and Meow Chan, a hit children's show in which two brothers portray a dog and a cat, has made the pair famous with young audiences across Taiwan. Though radiant on stage, each brother carries something heavy off it. Shiba San is secretly in love with a married man who cannot give him what he needs, while Meow Chan feels abandoned by a mother who has remarried and moved on. Bound by the costumes they wear and the cheerful faces they are paid to keep, the two strays find themselves on a journey that leads them to confront the emptiness inside and, perhaps, to recognize it in each other. Chiang Chung-chieh's short film is a gentle, melancholy drama about performance, loneliness, and brotherhood, led by affecting performances from Liu Kuan-ting and Wu Chih-hsuan.