The accident happened at June the 10th
He (director Qi Bolin) was shooting the Hsiukuluan River
And the aircraft was about to land
But it failed
And we never see them again
He left us while doing what he was passionate about
So I tell myself
He died a heroic death
He watched and recorded Taiwan for 25 years
He took a lot of pictures
He kept over one hundred thousand negatives
But every time he gave lectures
He felt like that children nowadays
Didn’t really know their own homeland
Many slept through his lectures
It occurred to him
That if he made it a film
People may want to see it
What made up his mind
Was the 8/8 windstorm
In 2009
The windstorm inflicted heavy losses on the south and the east
So he rented a helicopter to record it
He saw the estuary to the west of Gaoping
It’s like a shoal
But with a closer look
He found that those were driftwoods
That was the first time he shed tears on an aircraft
It’s like the end of the world
He said that his goal was to show the beauty and the scars of Taiwan
To Taiwanese
And hopefully to stop people from damaging their homeland
He was just a public servant
With a monthly salary of less than 100,000 TWD
An aerial photography system costs 30,000,000 TWD
It was like a day dream
No one expected that he would talk to his mother
To let her give him the deeds to apply for loans
He went to the bank
And they said they could only give him a few millions
He couldn’t afford the equipment even if he put down his house for loan
So he preached this idea
To his wealthiest friends
And they started this Taiwan Aerial Imaging
I worked with him
For about 5 years
He was a typical Taiwan man
He was like a father to me
We quarreled a lot
We made fun of each other
While working on an aircraft
He (Director Qi) was totally engrossed
Because every second was cash-burning
And every single second mattered
He would spend 7 or 8 hours a day shooting in flight
Taiwan in his mind was a complete map
In which season, at what time
On which side would the sun be at whatever place
Where he could catch the most beautiful light
I don’t think there is another person in Taiwan
Could have made such discussions with pilots
Qi shot on helicopters
Because UAVs can only go where men can go
But helicopters aren’t that
They can go where men can’t
There are secret lands beyond the reach of men
That’s why it attracts so much attention now
I think he saw Taiwan in a way that few others had seen
People going to the film
Were from all ages
Bringing along the old and the young
As babies are not allowed in theaters
A mother booked the whole theater
And that showing was dedicated to mothers with babies
It moved us deeply
And gave rise to discussions
After the film
“Beyond Beauty – Taiwan from Above” has become a textbook for children
He said he had acrophobia
And I asked him
So why weren’t you afraid of heights while working
He said that concentrating his mind on the picture in his lens
Made him forget all about that
He encountered sudden weather changes more than once
Aircrafts lost heights quickly
He mentioned it to me several times
In February or March
We met and talked
He mentioned again
That he was constantly concerned
About the aircraft and the turbulence
We really hope that he had never left
He loved going to work
He was always the first to arrive at the office, turning on the lights and boiling water
To our mind
He is irreplaceable
He is the one and only Qi Bolin