Tracing to Expo ’70

A Taiwanese singer works as a hostess at the 1970 World Expo in Osaka – a job she took to be in Japan, where she hopes to discover more about her secret benefactor and his motives. A musical, a travelogue, a mystery: three kinds of movies in one dazzling film.

It was in Tokyo in 1964 that the Olympics took place for the first time in Asia; six years on, Osaka would do the same for the World Exposition, making Japan’s third-biggest city the pride of the region. Liao Hsiang-hsiung’s Tracing to Expo ’70 wasn’t a big thing in its days – maybe because its particular pleasures were somewhat more common half a century ago.

Restored for the occasion of the Expo’s return to the heart of Osaka in 2025, Tracing to Expo ’70 swoons today with its wild mix of tones. It starts as a stylised pop musical, offering its star, Japanese-Taiwanese singer-actress Judy Ongg, ample opportunities to show her vocal talents; then it turns into almost a travelogue where Ongg’s job as a tourist guide is used to show the Expo’s many marvels of modern life; to take one final turn into a suspense story about Ongg’s past, which leads us back to World War II. They don’t make treasure troves of delight like Tracing to Expo ’70 any more in most parts of the world, and we’re poorer for it.

– Olaf Möller

Trailer

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