TRANSLATION | Eugenia Yang

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, although people are aware of the hard work medical workers put in to keep our community safe, we often forget about the firefighters. According to Director Yin-Chuan Tsai, since we are short on medical supplies, a lot of firemen have been forced to reuse their protective gowns and N95 masks. She is urging the people of Taiwan to turn their heads: this is what is happening in our society. 

堅守

一聲警鈴，消防員義無反顧的奔赴現場，救人、滅火、設置警鈴，在《火神的眼淚》第十集落尾，張志遠（林柏宏飾演）回到分隊天台點起一根菸給好友林義陽（劉冠廷飾演），那是一種不會停止思念的表述，習慣捕捉「寫實」的導演蔡銀娟，在最後的主線還是收束了一些希望，以一個刻意不要絕望的姿態去陳述，生命還是有光這回事，她想通過鏡頭告訴台灣，時間會在生命中留下痕跡，支撐人繼續前行，逝去的「火神英雄」永遠住在他們心底。

拍攝《火神的眼淚》，是蔡銀娟2020年帶來的全新思考與突破，她親眼看見了很多消防員的往前衝，也見過他們的疲憊。光是從田調到寫劇本就花上了一年多的時間，同時身為這部劇的導演兼編劇，她表示身兼這兩者身份，對於拍攝有很大的幫助，在前期工作分隊蹲點與田調，有助於她了解消防員之間的互動，貼近真實職人工作的樣貌，在短時間融入到情境中，去設計腳本，甚至到拍攝導戲階段，當演員有自己想詮釋的想法，她可以去判斷是否與真實消防人的工作狀態吻合。講到拍攝影集的挑戰，主要是各種高難度的打火、爆破戲，這對台灣影視小製作規模而言是一項極大的挑戰，雖然此次是拍攝電視劇，拍攝手法偏向電影感一些，劇情節奏也相對緊湊。

自我

保留了寫實眼光，她持續在議題性的腳本中切換堅持著文本創作的價值，追求內心愉悅滿足。在劇中，她更多次注入了許多有議題性的鏡頭，希望能在社交平台上有些討論的聲音，例如：消防員破門兩次的場景，網友關注點放在酸民的無理謾罵，或許可以將視角聚焦在消防局如何撥預算解決消防員出任務時的意外損失；劇中市府秘書表示將預算撥在放煙火民眾才有感，放在消防員的無線電上民眾看不到，網友評判是否為政治人物的操作，但鏡頭想詮釋的是在真實社會中這是民意調查的結果，只能說是每一個人價值取向不同。但這些並沒有被廣泛地探討與思考，這讓蔡銀娟很困惑。

或許是因為大學時期就讀台大社工科系，讓她有著關注社會脈動的情懷，回顧年少曾經從事過社工、畫畫的工作，她發現自己依然對影視行業保有熱情。現在的她正在學習放慢生活步調，近期已將《火神的眼淚》第二季企劃繳交公視審核，也跟進自己持續創作關於安置機構的社工題材，她更透露希望《火神》第二季，能夠有更充裕的時間，製作出更有啟發性的劇本，或許最快的事也許就是應該慢慢來。

追光

話題聊到了《火神的眼淚》的社交動態，會發現許多粉絲網友的呼聲紛紛希望《火神》第二季能夠讓林義陽（劉冠廷飾演）回來，但演員在真實世界中還活的好好的，而在生活中那些救災逝世的消防員卻真的回不來了，家屬的眼淚更是不會停止。或許好的電視劇或是電影，是讓你對於這個世界的認知變得更清晰，是由於認知邊界不停地擴大，認識到所有的評判標準的有限性，所有固定不移的東西都在鬆動，包括腳下的土地。

改變不是一蹴而就的，她在尾聲說道，「火神是一個起點，讓消防員的權益可以有更多人關注。」她覺得不用著急，這是她的期待，也是她感受到時間的力量。

Stand Your Ground 

As soon as the alarm goes off, the firefighters rush to the scene without any hesitation to save lives and extinguish fires. At the season finale of Tears On Fire, we see Zhi-Yuan return to his station’s rooftop and light an extra cigarette to honor his best friend Yi-Yang who had just died on duty. It is a touching expression that captures the never-ending reminiscing. Used to capturing reality, Director Tsai chose to convey a bit of hopefulness in the finale. In a deliberate matter, she wanted to send the message that there will always be light in life, even when we are in despair. Through the lens, she tells us time will mark its traces in life and support us to keep going, the same way these heroes will forever reside in the hearts of the audience.  

It took Director Tsai three years of brainstorming and breakthroughs to finish filming Tears On Fire. She saw first-hand the bravery and courage of the firemen, but also their exhaustion and frustration. From field research to writing the script, it took her over a year of preparation. As the director and screenwriter of the show, she said the duality of her roles actually helped a lot with shooting. In the earlier stages, she visited different fire stations to do her field studies. It allowed her to understand how they interact with one another and the reality of their work culture, which she was able to integrate into her script and the scene she was building. During filming, whenever actors had their own desired way of expressing certain ideas, Director Tsai was able to decide whether or not it fit with the image of an actual firefighter. When it comes to the challenges of making the show, she said it was mainly the variety of difficult explosions and fire fighting shoots. To her, even though she was shooting a TV series, her filming method was actually more cinematic with a relatively fast-paced storytelling. 

In Conversation with the Self 

Maintaining a realistic perspective, Director Tsai holds onto the value of literary creativity when tackling an issue-oriented script. In the show, she repeatedly included shots that seemed controversial, in the hopes of inspiring discussion among her audience and the online community. For instance, in one of the episodes where the secretary of the city council points out that, instead of putting their budget on renewing the firemen’s walkie-talkies, spending money on the New Year’s Eve fireworks is what satisfies the public. Although it may seem like a judgment on whether politicians care more about the polls or actual change, the episode is actually a discussion about where exactly does the public’s interest lie—on the celebrities who will be attending the NYE show or on these firemen who are risking their lives? It opens up a question: are we giving the fire department enough resources to work with? These are the kind of discussions that trouble Director Tsai because they seem to be more important and yet, are being ignored and put aside.  

Having graduated from National Taiwanese University with a major in social work, Director Tsai had always been following what’s happening in our society. Looking back on her past experiences working in the fields of social work and art, she realized that she is still passionate about the film and television industry. She had recently just turned in the proposal for the second season of Tears On Fire to Public Television Service and is now working on a new project on social workers and shelter services. Director Tsai also wishes that there will be more time for her to work on season two, so that she will be able to create scripts that are more in-depth and capable of inspiring necessary discussions. 

Chasing the Lights 

As we talk about the social media impact of Tears On Fire, we’ll realize that a lot of fans are hoping that actor Kuan-Ting Liu’s character Yi-Yang can return for season two. Obviously, the actor himself is alive and well in the real world, but the firefighters who lost their lives when they were on duty will never come back. Perhaps the way we define a good show or movie is by noticing how it changes the way we perceive the world. As our perspective becomes clearer and the scale of our viewpoint expands, we begin to realize the limitations to all judgments and standards. It will unsettle every belief and change all the things we once known as static, including the very concrete land we are now standing upon. 

Necessary change does not happen within the snap of the fingers. Towards the end of our interview, Director Yin-Chuan Tsai believes that there is no rush as she points out, “Tears On Fire is the first step to letting the rights of all firefighters be noticed.” This is her aspiration and how she understands the true power of time.