Director Hung Hung breaks away from the realism of Taiwanese cinema with his sci-fi romance 'The Wall-Passer'
Poet, theater director and filmmaker Hung Hung (鴻鴻) breaks away from the realism typical of Taiwanese cinema with his latest movie The Wall-Passer (穿牆人), a sci-fi romance.
Set in the near future, the film begins as 17-year-old Tye (Chang Yung-cheng, 張永政) moves from planet G40, where there's been an earthquake, to Real City.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF DARK EYES
On a field trip to a museum, Tye finds a radioactive rock that gives him the ability to pass through walls. He also meets and secretly falls for an alien employee named Nono (Lee Chia-ying, 李佳穎), who communicates through bionic earpieces.
The romance is cut off by the reappearance of Nono's French-speaking lover. After the alien leaves without a trace, Tye searches for her in a world called Elsewhere.
He never finds her, but does meet the leather-clad, blind hottie, Ya-hung (Jozie Lu, 路嘉欣). Eventually, he realizes that he is a character in a computer game that Ya-hung created. Tye lets Ya-hung take his place in the game so that she can experience family life.
They return to their own worlds and 20 years pass by. The middle-aged Tye comes to what looks like the end of the world during a company outing. There, he sees a girl who resembles his long-lost love, Nono.
Inspired by French novelist and playwright Marcel Ayme's short story Le Passe-Muraille and Jean-Luc Godard's Alphaville, the film is a coming-of-age story about a lone boy growing into a considerate individual who gradually accepts the world as it is. Abundant in symbology and metaphors, the film is also about Tye's dreams.
Rather than lavishing money on expensive post-production special effects, Hung Hung and the crew members, including cinematographer Jake Pollock, build up an aura of fantasia through creative art direction and unique "hand-crafted visual effects," according to a statement by the director.
The stylistic use of rear projection inspired by Lars Von Trier's Europa exudes a dream-like psychological world. Black-and-white cinematography also helps perpetuate this feeling, while specially exposed color film gives the sci-fi flick a metallic blue-green hue.
The smooth flow of the film was enabled by meticulously planned camera movements. Among the most impressive is Tye's first experience passing through a wall.
The release of The Wall-Passer closely follows that of fellow mold-breaking director Wu Mi-sen's (吳米森) Amour-Legende (松鼠自殺事件).
"The 1980s and 1990s saw a fine oeuvre of realistic films, but now Taiwanese cinema is limited. We will come to a dead-end if things continue going in the same direction ... ." Hung Hung said. "Wu and I are sort of among the first ones to take up the challenge, that is, to create something different and not be concerned with what is expected from us as Taiwanese directors."
Film notes
The Wall-Passer
(穿牆人)
DIRECTED BY: Hung Hung (鴻鴻)
STARRING: Chang Yung-cheng (張永政) as Tye, Lee Chia-ying (李佳穎) as Nono, Jozie Lu (路嘉欣) as Ya-hung
LANGUAGE: In Mandarin with Chinese and English subtitles
RUNNING TIME: 108 minutes
TAIWAN RELEASE: Today
May 18 to May 24 Pastor Yang Hsu’s (楊煦) congregation was shocked upon seeing the land he chose to build his orphanage. It was surrounded by mountains on three sides, and the only way to access it was to cross a river by foot. The soil was poor due to runoff, and large rocks strewn across the plot prevented much from growing. In addition, there was no running water or electricity. But it was all Yang could afford. He and his Indigenous Atayal wife Lin Feng-ying (林鳳英) had already been caring for 24 orphans in their home, and they were in
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday delivered an address marking the first anniversary of his presidency. In the speech, Lai affirmed Taiwan’s global role in technology, trade and security. He announced economic and national security initiatives, and emphasized democratic values and cross-party cooperation. The following is the full text of his speech: Yesterday, outside of Beida Elementary School in New Taipei City’s Sanxia District (三峽), there was a major traffic accident that, sadly, claimed several lives and resulted in multiple injuries. The Executive Yuan immediately formed a task force, and last night I personally visited the victims in hospital. Central government agencies and the
Australia’s ABC last week published a piece on the recall campaign. The article emphasized the divisions in Taiwanese society and blamed the recall for worsening them. It quotes a supporter of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as saying “I’m 43 years old, born and raised here, and I’ve never seen the country this divided in my entire life.” Apparently, as an adult, she slept through the post-election violence in 2000 and 2004 by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the veiled coup threats by the military when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) became president, the 2006 Red Shirt protests against him ginned up by
As with most of northern Thailand’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) settlements, the village of Arunothai was only given a Thai name once the Thai government began in the 1970s to assert control over the border region and initiate a decades-long process of political integration. The village’s original name, bestowed by its Yunnanese founders when they first settled the valley in the late 1960s, was a Chinese name, Dagudi (大谷地), which literally translates as “a place for threshing rice.” At that time, these village founders did not know how permanent their settlement would be. Most of Arunothai’s first generation were soldiers
RSS