North Asian cinema seems perpetually awash with emotive melodramas about a plucky group of misfits joining a school band. It seems to be a perennial subject matter, and its ongoing popularity makes me wonder: are school bands particularly popular things in Chinese and Japanese culture, or is it just films produced about them?

Turn Around, directed by Tapu Chen back in 2017, is yet another addition to the sub-genre. In this case its story is drawn from real life, and is based in part on actual events. It focuses on Wang Cheng-chung, played by pop star Jay Shih, a graduate teacher assigned to a rural Taiwanese school. Unhappy with his assignment, and desperate to be transferred, he cynically tries to curry favour with his students to influence his own performance assessment. When the town is struck by a devastating earthquake, Wang re-evaluates his attitude and dedicates himself to supporting his class any way that he can.

Wang Cheng-chung is a real teacher, although I have no idea how closely the film adapts his life and achievements. The earthquake that transforms the film at its mid-point is equally real. Striking central Taiwan in September 1999, it levelled entire communities, killed more than 2,400 people, and caused roughly NT$300 billion worth of damage. The action that precedes and follows the earthquake in Turn Around can be easily dismissed as a very familiar, by-the-numbers sort of uplifting drama. The central disaster is powerfully depicted, profoundly tragic, and enormously effective. It is a perfect example of film combining human performance, visual effects, and strong production techniques to achieve its desired effect.

Jay Shih is competent enough as Wang, but the role suffers from a screenplay that seems to fail in giving the character any distinctive or memorable qualities upon which Shih can hang his performance. It is a similar problem for co-star Kimi Hisa as fellow teacher Hsiao-lun. Really it is the juvenile actors portraying Wang’s unruly junior high class who most stand out, particularly Yuan Jen-fu as the diminutive A-fei. There is a comfortable familiarity to them, and each actor plays well within their respective character’s home and school contexts.

There is a overriding warmth to the film in general. Its real-world context does give it some distinctive elements, but ultimately this is comforting ‘get what you expect’ cinema. The characters act how one would expect them to. The narrative unfolds in an easy-to-predict and familiar fashion. It would be easy to grow disinterested or disappointed in what Tapu Chen offers, but ultimately that seems a more an issue of expectations than in what the film actually is. This is amiable, heartwarming cinema fit for purpose.