[Movie Review]Din Tao: Leader of The Parade

CPOP Song Of the Day 03

The theme song of movie titled, Leader Of the Parade,a Hokkien song sang by Taiwanese, Alan Kuo.



柯有倫 Alan Kuo《陣頭》
作曲：劉偉仁
作詞：劉偉仁

未來 往往攏去乎時間偷拿去
緣分 路草擱甲長嘛會相遇
弟兄 我是你的BACK 免驚惶
鬥陣ㄟ啊 無人敢逼你 逼甲未喘氣
我替你圍

是青春是成功 咱鬥陣(認真)追 
我相信 一生的 所有漂泊的青春 攏有代價 
現在是 咱ㄟ世代
屬於你的 是我的 攏免歹勢
(屬於你的 是我的 是咱的 攏做你拿)

I love the lyrics of this song. The lyrics talks about fate bringing friends(brothers) together and that we should support and back one another up. Let's pursue youth and success together!

阵头 Leader Of The Leader

'Din Tao' is a Hokkien word for 'Leader Of the Parade'.

I'm always interested to know more about chinese traditional religious rituals like these and was thrilled to be invited to watch the preview!

Din-Tao is the most successful sleeper hit during Chinese New Year in Taiwan.With more than 10M USD box office, the film had already moved millions ofaudiences! It is now the no. 1 film in 2012, beating all the local andHollywood films.  

Din-Tao starrs Alien Huang and Alan Kuo, who were born into a long-line of Din-Tao players.  Their dads are rivals in the story, which makes them rivals too.







Ah-Tai(Alan Kuo) was deemed as a good-for-nothing since his childhood days and a little boy who is disrespectful of gods. His father decided to send him away, increasingly straining the relationship between this father and son. Unintentionally, Ah-Tai is appointed the leader of the parade and resulted in him leading a troupe of school drop-outs to compete against their rival troupe. 


Ah-Tai decides to prove his worth by embarking on a performance journey across Taiwan with his young troupe members. 

Watch the movie to find out how the characters overcome obstacles which include family miscommunication, rivalry, jealousy, team-bonding. 

More about Din-Tao Culture


The leader of the parade plays an important role in Taiwanese culture and religion. Din-Tao is a religious ritual performed in order to express people's gratitude towards gods and goddesses at the religious festivals. These Din-Tao troupes act as bodyguards when the gods and goddesses go on a parade. Moreover, it has become an important street art in Taiwan.

The 124-minute movie is based on the true story of Chio-Tian Folk Drums and Arts Troupe in Taichung. The troupe was founded by Daoist priest Hsu Chen-jung in 1955 to help school dropouts and bring ceremonial folk performances to the public. 


Group members play the roles of demigods with painted faces and colorful costumes to lead long processions of the faithful in parades organized by temples on religious festivals. In 2004, the group carried heavy drums and other props to the top of Yushan in central Taiwan, the highest peak in East Asia. In 2011, they completed a seven-day, 250km journey to carry a statue of the Daoist deity Nezha across the Sahara in temperatures ranging from 50 degrees Celsius in the daytime to 10 degrees at night. (source taken from here)










Get ready to be moved to tears as you watched.

Leader Of the Parade is more inspiring than I thought. In addition,the movie is extremely educational. Learn more about this beautiful culture, appreciate it even more. I'd also like to stress that many moral values were being conveyed via this movie.

The director:


Interview of my favourite boy in the movie. He plays an autistic child with a talent;he can play the drums just by listening to the rhythm once. Most suave!

 His scenes are the MOST TOUCHING!


Follow Din-Tao on facebook here.
Photo credits to: 20th Century Fox