Now in Theaters: SU Proudly Presents S-Girl, Taiwan’s First Popular Science AI Movie

The highly anticipated movie S-Girl is coming in hot, hitting theaters on September 16^th, 2022. Under the guidance by National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), Soochow University joined forces with Tunghai University, National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU), and the Dadushan Society to produce the educational film, marking SU’s first venture as a presenter of a movie.

S-Girl touches upon the relationship between AI and humans through the life of a young girl, with a purpose to teach the audience about the value of life and science education, as well as to portrait the limitations and hardships female scientists often struggle with in their own field.

Themed around popular science and AI and aimed towards adolescents, the film had many crucial scenes shot at the Arts Center of Soochow’s Downtown Campus and at the Memory Archives (showroom for school’s history) of Waishuangsi Campus. And behind the scene were two SU alumni: Yin-Guo Wang (Class of 1994, Dept. of Physics) as the executive producer, and Yi-Han Li (Class of 2015, Dept. of Physics) as the writer of the movie’s theme song.

Wang, now a professor at NTNU’s Center for General Education, said that the protagonist was a girl because he wanted to commemorate two late female scientists and his important teachers Chia-Li Wu and Ching-Liang Lin. Also, the film targeted youngsters because he has two teenage daughters, and hence his drive to arouse young children’s interest in science through movies.

 Taking “Failure is natural, while success is a gift from God” as his motto, Wang claimed that success rarely happens in one go, and failure is actually the norm. And people often only focus on the fruitful outcome but overlook the painful journey, he added. More importantly, one should not limit his or her possibilities of the future because of the defeats of the present. Wang had faced many challenges in making this film, but he never quitted, which led to the birth of a great movie for the audience to enjoy.

Wang and Li met in 2020 at the Physics Department’s 50th anniversary party, where Wang offered Li the opportunity to write the theme song for the movie. Even though both the music and lyrics needed altering and revisions during the process, but Li never felt frustrated because he held on to the idea of making the song perfect.

After seven years in the making, the wait has finally come to an end. Get ready for familiar scenes of SU’s campus and Li’s cameos in a grand feast for the eyes. For more information, check out the film’s official Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/sgirl.film) and the movie trailer (https://youtu.be/6ukJJW5myuI).