Since his debut feature, A Drifting 1 Life, documentary film-maker Lin Cheng-Sheng has proved to be one of Taiwan's most consistently interesting directors. His third film, last year's Sweet Degeneration, saw his style mature, as he assembled a powerful story about incestuous feelings, applying an effortless disregard for traditional narrative structure. His use of lengthy, slow passages - long even by Taiwanese standards - gave the film a musical, almost John Coltrane-like ambience, which perfectly complemented its sax-playing anti-hero.

Cheng-Sheng`s latest, March Of Happiness, is a historical piece that treads the well-worn theme of Taiwanese identity. The country has always sought to understand how the various occupying influences - Dutch, Japanese, American and mainland Chinese - have mixed with the indigenous islanders to forge a national character. It will certainly be interesting to compare Cheng-Shengs take on this with those of earlier masters like Hou Hsaio-Hsien and Edward Yang.

"Even though the world may be falling apart, there is one thing which remains true and beautiful, and that is youth," the director writes in the film's production notes.

The story focuses on A-Yu, an innocent girl with a passion for theatre, and A-Jin, a musician studying in Japan. A-Jin's life there has alienated him from his roots, and he's somewhat confused when he returns home. There he meets and falls in love with A-Yu. The year is 1945, and Taiwan is under Japanese occupation. When the Allied forces begin bombing Taiwan, the ensuing evacuation separates the lovers, but they continue their affair by letter.

By the time A-Yu and A-Jin meet again, Taiwan has been returned to the Nationalist Party, and their relationship is put under even more strain when A-Yu's father puts pressure on her to marry a rich doctor's son. Their wedding is to take place on February 28, 1947 a notorious date in Taiwan's history, which saw Nationalist troops from mainland China, fleeing Mao's Communists, massacre the indigenous Taiwanese. The date set, the lovers' fate is in the balance and Taiwan faces its terrible destiny. Richard James Havis