Hong Kong film Love is Not a Sin talks about a similar topic. Starting off as a tale about two best friends falling in love, the film unfolds with every outrageous element thrown in, including long-lost siblings, incestuous thoughts and a long distance relationship with a non-existent lover. Low on budget but high on drama, the film by Hong Kong director Doug Chan (
Leaving in Sorrow is another Hong Kong film, this one heavily influenced by the spirit of Dogme95, only using handheld camera and without using special lighting or other effects. It is a drama about six Hong Kong people living in San Francisco. Their existance is filled with lies, either because of the trauma from the Tiananmen Square massacre or because of their own contradictory beliefs.
Japanese film Asakusa Kid is highly recommended, especially for fans of Takeshi Kitano. An autobiography of Kitano's youth, the film faithfully and vividly describes Kitano's experience at a striptease theater in Asakusa, where he trained as a vaudevillian. It follows through to his meeting with his mentor who encouraged him to develop as an artist. It is a story full of both laughter and tears.
Korean film Flower Island is a very stylish film with a story by Song Il-gon. It tells the story of three women who have lost hope: a 16 year-old girl who has an abortion in a toilet, a singer suffering from throat cancer and a prostitute turning her back on her profession. They decide to go together on a trip to the Flower Island, a place where all pain and sadness disappear. Encounters during their journey there help heal their inner wounds.
Apart from the international films, there are four Taiwanese feature films, nine film shorts and seven animation shorts. The shorts were selected from winners of the Digital Shorts Competition in the previous Golden Horse Film Festival and the Taipei Film Festival.
What: Digital Vision -- An Invisible Force
When and Where: Aug. 9 to Aug. 22 at SPOT, Sept. 6 to Sept. 19 at Hsinchu Municipal Image Museum, Oct. 10 to Oct. 24 at Kaohsiung City Film Library.
Tickets: Free in Kaohsiung, NT$100 in Hsinchu and NT$150 in Taipei, available at Acer ticketing outlets as well as at the venues. For more program information: visit www.spot.org.tw, or call (02) 2511 7786
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