Darkness and Light (Chinese: 黑暗之光; pinyin: Hei An Zhi Guang) is a 1999 Taiwanese narrative film directed by Chang Tso-chi.
Growing up with an absent mother, Kang-yi takes care of her family: her intellectually disabled younger brother, her blind father, and her grandparents.
Since his early productions, Chang Tso-chi has been known for his style of working with people who share similar lived experiences with the characters portrayed in his films.
To prepare the amateur actors for their roles, Chang Tso-chi often asks the entire cast to spend extended time together, so that they can bond and build a sense of intimacy together.
"Like fellow Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien, Chang [Tso-chi] makes films that impose a speed (slow) and a rhythm (subtle, insistent, measured) on their viewers.
It certainly makes for an unusual resolution to an otherwise standard study of working class types and gangster substrata.”[5] Taiwan Review film critic, Kelly Her, praised, "Movie director Chang Tso-chi, one of the few survivors of a film industry battered by international competition, is winning kudos from critics for his tales of the triumph of the little man struggling against long odds.
"[2] Taiwanese singer and songwriter, Summer Lei (雷光夏), wrote and sang the theme song, “Forgiveness,” for Chang Tso-chi's Darkness and Light.