Discovering that she has terminal cancer with only months left to live, young music teacher Hsu Xiuya (Judy Ongg) leaves a comfortable career to pursue her dreams as a “teacher of love” at the remote and dilapidated Cixin [“The Heart of Mercy”] Orphanage. Life at first proves difficult but Xiuya wins the children’s hearts through her music, and transforms the Orphanage and its Headmaster with her patient and nurturing spirit, leaving behind an inspiring legacy of love.
Love Begins Here has obvious allusions to Robert Wise’s Sound of Music (1965) via its characters, the lederhosen-inspired uniforms, a musical number channeling Liesl and Rolfe, and the picture-perfect mountain grassland shots - but the similarities end there. Ostensibly to enlighten and encourage the young generation of post-war Taiwan, the film also borrows from Richard Bach’s popular Jonathan Livingston Seagull (1970), a novel (and later film) of New Age philosophy of self-perfection and self-sacrifice.
This was the last and most musical of a popular trio of films starring Judy Ongg in the 1970s. The other two were Love Can Forgive and Forget (Zhenjia qianjin, Liao Hsiao-Hsiong, 1971) and Judy’s Lucky Jacket (Wujia zhi bao, Richard Chen Yaoqi, 1972). It won the Golden Horse Award for Best Music and Cinematography (1973).