Poet WU Sheng writes in a style that is down-to-earth and filled with a natural energy. As an intellectual who had returned to teach in his hometown, he saw how industrialization and urbanization continued to encroach on agriculture, farmers and rural villages, and bore witness to the life of rice farmers and his mother.His writing is infused with insights on life and a self-identity tinged with nostalgia for times past, reminding his readers to care about the land with which they coexist. The film, which shows the emotion that flows between the writer and his family and friends, together with the visual language employed, presents WU Sheng as a warm and three-dimensional figure, achieving a rare work that closely links a writer’s literary beliefs with his life events.
吳晟的詩扎根鄉土,錘鍊詩句與耕耘土地,數十年從未間斷。自2017年起,本片跟著吳晟穿梭彰化鄉間、踏查濁水溪生態,亦飛住美國愛荷華回憶參加寫作班心情,拜訪亦師亦友的作家瘂弦,呈現吳晟與家庭、友人間的情感流動與影像語言。期間吳晟因故無法寫詩,面對生命的挫折與衝擊中,於谷底執筆記錄事件始末,寫成《北農風雲》一書。本片紀錄了心情轉折,從憤怒、焦灼、挫敗、掙扎、到重生與昇華,遂見證了詩是濁世最終的救贖。