THE PRICE OF SOUND

Set against Taiwan’s 1980s underworld and music industry, this music-crime character drama follows a young man who steps into darkness, descends into vengeance and fame, and ultimately confronts the price of redemption.

Set in 1980s Taiwan, The Price of Sound follows Jiang Qinghe, a gifted sixteen-year-old from Sanchong who dreams of becoming a singer while growing up above his father’s mahjong parlor, surrounded by gang violence, debt, and fear.

After his father is killed in a brutal underworld dispute, Qinghe is left to face his family’s debts, his mother’s illness, and the disappearance of the girl he loves. To survive, he is pulled into the nightclub and underground gambling scene, where betrayal and violence turn him from a desperate teenager into a feared name in the criminal world. Yet even in his darkest years, Qinghe continues to write songs in secret.

His only hope comes from A-Fei, a seasoned nightclub singer who recognizes the pain in his voice and teaches him to survive through music. When A-Fei is murdered backstage, Qinghe turns four years of trauma into songs and sends them to a record company. His voice earns him a chance to start over—but only if he buries his past forever.

After military service, Qinghe debuts under a new stage name and quickly rises to fame. His first album becomes a major success and earns multiple Golden Melody Award nominations. But just before the ceremony, anonymous letters expose the truth about his past: the gangs, the casinos, the violence, and the compromises he made to survive.

On the night he wins Best Male Singer, Qinghe must choose between protecting the perfect image created for him or facing the truth he has spent years trying to outrun. In the end, his final performance becomes not a victory, but a confession—and the first step toward redemption.