Brain is an elementary school teacher, recently fired for his improper political beliefs. He becomes the pawn used to convince the locals that a joint US-Taiwan military manoeuvre will be good for the area, and so he goes about trying to persuade everyone to agree to the exercise. I was looking for a good story for the next film after the finish of A Borrowed Life, and it seemed that there were already too many stories dealing with America and Taiwan or with Japan and Taiwan. The Taiwanese were overflowing with both political and economic confidence at the time and that was enough to elicit smiles. So I made Buddha Bless America, whose idea is from real experience of one of my friends 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, I really have no idea of what the characteristics of Taiwanese New Wave cinema are. Nevertheless, I can say my work will be one of them if it has an individual’s rich creativity and a pronounced style on the basis of reality. Meanwhile, Buddha Bless America has considerably more cuts compared to other Taiwanese New Wave films. Because I wanted to change the ‘estrangement,’ that quality supposed to be one of the most distinctive characteristics associated with the Taiwanese New Wave (along with certain aspects of the materials for a story and/or the particular relation between the cinema and its audience). (Wu Nien-jen)