The simple and poignant story of a fabled literary family, for whom the writing continues

Literature alone must not be ordinary.

Under a sweet osmanthus tree lived an ordinary family, and in their house was a cache of correspondences between the father, novelist Chu Hsi-ning, and the mother, translator Liu Musha. Not quite love letters, these correspondences speak of great ambitions through words such as “literature alone must not be ordinary”. At a critical juncture in history, the military man who followed the Nationalist army to Taiwan and the local-born physician’s daughter met and together wrote a poignant love story.

Chu Hsi-ning devoted himself to writing novels, always renewing his style and coming up with innovative subject matters and ways of writing. Liu Musha translated Japanese literature and introduced great Japanese writers and their visions to Taiwan. The couple eloped for literature and devoted themselves to literature, supporting each other through it all. The documentary film tells of their meeting and falling in love, defying external pressures to get married, building a home sustained by manuscripts, and forming friendships with talented writers, making literature the core calling to which they devoted their lives. They wrote stories and became stories themselves, the pen in their hand always engaged on the literary front, which was a constant presence in their eventful life.

The Chu family’s three daughters compare and connect their parents’ works with childhood memories, reading aloud the letters from their youth, as though from the story of a thousand and one nights, searching through and overturning boxes and chests for the origins of the family’s memories, unleashing a current of faded times. Unfulfilled Dreams is the directorial debut of the eldest of the Chu daughters, Chu T’ien-wen. Along with a production team led by renowned director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the film crew traveled to China to visit the Chus’ relatives while also filming at the old family house in Taiwan, scenes which combine with cherished family photos and a rich cache of rare historic materials to present the story of how this unique literary family set down roots and branched out. The husband and wife lived a simple life, but always held on to the belief that literature must not be ordinary, a belief that is still faithfully pursued by their daughters with pen and paper.

一個稿紙糊成的家，一場未竟的文學夢。

平凡的桂花樹下人家，塵封著父親小說家朱西甯與母親翻譯家劉慕沙的書信，他們的情書非情書，還題下「唯有文學，不能平凡」的鴻鵠大志，一個隨國軍來台的軍人，與本省籍的醫生千金，在歷史交會點寫下深刻愛戀。

朱西甯致力於小說創作，不斷突破自我風格，創新小說題材與寫作語言；劉慕沙從事日本文學翻譯，引介日本大家新視野，這對相互扶持的伴侶，為文學私奔、也為文學獻身。電影紀錄兩人從相識相戀的緣分，到抵抗外在壓力邁向婚姻的結合，撐起一個稿紙糊成的家，同時結交各路友人才俊，將文學作為一生燃燒的核心志業。他們寫故事，也成為故事，手中的筆總在第一線，與精彩的人生緊緊相依。

朱家三個女兒將父母著作與兒時記憶對接，朗讀他們年輕時往來的書信，彷如一千零一夜，家的記憶源流翻箱倒櫃，褪色的時光傾瀉而出。《願未央》由長女朱天文首執導演筒，偕同侯孝賢領銜的劇組班底，拍攝團隊遠赴中國探親、走訪台灣舊居，並透過珍貴的家族照片與難得的豐富史料，呈現出這個絕無僅有的文學家族開枝散葉的歷程。他們將生活過得簡樸，但對於文學終其一生不能平凡的大願，依然在第二代女兒的紙筆中虔誠地追逐著。