Taiwan's film industry should start all over again, Hong Kong producer and president of the Federation of Hong Kong Film Workers Ng See-yuen (
The three-day conference was packed with local and international film professionals, as well as enthusiastic film students and movie fans. Together, they discussed the all-too familiar topic of how to save the Taiwanese film industry.
This time around, the country's young generation of filmmakers seemed to agree with Ng.
"Taiwan has too many film directors. But we don't have enough scriptwriters," said filmmaker Su Choa-pin (
It took Su and his team two years to write the text for Double Vision, all the while sending the script back and forth to various Hollywood producers and writers. It was the first Taiwanese movie made under the Hollywood working model, co-produced with Columbia Asia. "It was hard work, but very rewarding for me," said Su.
"In the past we always wrote our own scripts and made director's movies. But maybe it's time for a change," said Cheng Wen-tang (
Both Su and Cheng said this was a different approach to movie-making, a path distinct from predecessors such as Hou Hsiao-hsien (
As further proof of this theory, there are no Taiwanese films selected for the recently announced line-up at this year's Cannes Film Festival. South Korea and Thailand, however, are well represented. Two Korean films Hong San-soo's Woman is the Future of Man and Park Chan-wook's Old Boy have been selected for the competition section. A Thai film, Apichatpong Weerasethaku's Tropical Malady has been selected for the first time.
Hou Hsiao-Hsien has finished his latest work Coffee Time (
Discarding the tradition of looking at the world with a humanistic perspective, younger generation filmmakers are now moving toward a more innocent and less intellectual way of making films, concentrating on pure entertainment and marketable movies.
Formula 17 (
Fortunately for Yeh, the gay romantic comedy became one of the few local movies that made a profit in the past five years. The budget of the movie was just NT$4 million but it grossed NT$5 million at the box office, a small sales figure, but enough to make it the No.1 movie in terms of ticket sales this year.
This was a boost not only for Three Dots Entertainment, set up by a group of 30-somethings, but also for 23 year-old first-time director Chen Ying-jung (
Using pretty TV actors is another trend for the younger
generation of filmmakers. Alice Wang (
"My idea was to bring Taiwanese actors to mainland China and Hong Kong. A star is not born by appearing in just one film. You have to keep making movies to make them remembered by a wider audience," she said.
Wang's Karate Girls (
The film, co-produced with Bona Films in Beijing, was made with the Chinese market in mind. Thus, Wang was able to quickly raise funds for her next film, West Town Girls (
"For a long time, Taiwanese filmmakers have forgotten the basic social function of going to movies: that is to go to movies with your date, your family and friends," said Wold Chen (陳鴻元), CEO of Mata Entertainment. "Now, we are happy to see a younger generation going in a different direction," he said at the conference.
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In a stark demonstration of how award-winning breakthroughs can come from the most unlikely directions, researchers have won an Ig Nobel prize for discovering that mammals can breathe through their anuses. After a series of tests on mice, rats and pigs, Japanese scientists found the animals absorb oxygen delivered through the rectum, work that underpins a clinical trial to see whether the procedure can treat respiratory failure. The team is among 10 recognized in this year’s Ig Nobel awards (see below for more), the irreverent accolades given for achievements that “first make people laugh, and then make them think.” They are not