Sylvia Feng (馮賢賢), executive producer at PTS, said striking a balance between the artists' vision and the audience's needs was difficult. She said that though the film was not commercial, it was a cinematic achievement and offered a profound philosophical view. "In her film, the screen becomes the place where the mind unfolds itself." .
One scene in the documentary covers a discussion held at the famed Wisteria Tea House in Taipei. Feng said, "No Taiwanese photographer could capture the aura of Wisteria Tea House [a popular meeting place for"intellectuals'] better than Anika [Tokarchuk] ... her visualization of the intellectual culture in Taipei may spark enlightenment for Taiwanese directors."
The appreciation of Tokarchuk's film, however, goes beyond just artistic or intellectual circles. The Hao Ran Foundation (浩然基金會) has also helped out Tokarchuk's project since 2002. Hao Ran Executive Director Lin Ming-Hong (林明宏) said, "It was a joy to provide financial backing for a film rooted in such deep philosophical reflection."
Another supporter, Su-Jei Own (翁仕杰), deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Tibet Exchange Foundation (台藏交流基金會), views the film through the lens of Tibetan Buddhism. Crediting Anika with peeling away layers of realities in her documentary, Own said life itself was a phantasmagoria -- the reason why we are captives of illusion, fiction, and films.
Tokarchuk's experience of making the film changed her perceptions, as she thought they would. "The experience that I've gone through has been my version of living through the themes in Life as Cinema. It really has been this experience of living in this amazing reality."
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