Three times the fun

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The unexpectedly huge box office successes of Cape No. 7 (海角七號) and Orz Boyz (囧男孩) are looked upon by defenders of Taiwanese cinema as a sign of revival. Audiences are being gradually drawn back to the theater to watch local productions, they say, since younger generations of filmmakers think of cinema not only as tool of personal expression but a medium through which to entertain.

If the three shorts that hit the screen at Spot — Taipei Film House (台北之家—光點) starting tonight are any indication of what can be expected in the near future, then the Taiwanese movie industry is in for a renaissance of sorts.

The End of the Tunnel (天黑) by Chang Rong-ji (張榮吉) is a genre-bending boy-meets-girl story about a talented young pianist who lost his eyesight when he was little. He meets a lovelorn schoolmate through music. The newly found friendship takes both of the characters out of their respectively closed cosmoses and into the world.

Ho Wi-ding’s (何蔚庭) Summer Afternoon (夏午) starts off as an innocent road movie with three friends arguing and bickering on their ride in the countryside. Things take a shocking turn when the annoying backseat driver takes control.

Family Viewing (闔家觀賞) by Kuo Cheng-chu (郭承衢) begins with a French TV crew barging into a family’s home in Taipei to document the life of a typical Taiwanese family for a French reality show. Agreeing to be followed by cameraman Pierre for the weekend, the father, mother and daughter hospitably show how they live and what they think in front of the lens, and in the process reveal family secrets that lead to an unexpected denouement.

Having co-directed documentary feature My Football Summer (奇蹟的夏天) with veteran documentary director Yang Li-chou (楊力州), young filmmaker Chang once again demonstrates his aptitude for blending the fictional and non-fictional genres in The End of the Tunnel where reality, memory, dreams and fiction are spun into an arresting swirl of emotions.

Featured previously in Chang’s documentary film about a group of visually impaired people, musician Huang Yu-xiang (黃裕翔) is the inspiration of the well-scripted The End of the Tunnel and plays himself in the film. Promising young actress Sandrine Pinna (張榕容) is well cast as the young woman, who turns in an admirably natural and seemingly spontaneous performance that is more in the league of documentary filmmaking.

Malaysia-born, US-trained and Taiwan-based Ho first came to the attention of international film circuit with his highly stylish, SARS-themed post-apocalyptic short Respire (呼吸). Summer Afternoon is another of the director’s filmic experiments with his cinematographer friend Jake Pollack. Comprising five long takes and shot in black-and-white, the film draws the audience into a deceptively simple story with Pollack’s fluid camera work that tracks, moves in and out of the car, circles and floats around the characters, engaged but unnoticed.

In Family Viewing, the camera never moves. It stands still as a quiet observer. The world Kuo and his steadfast camera capture is a seemingly stable and secure straight family that is at the same time stuffy and repressive.

Veteran actress Lu Yi-Ching (陸奕靜) is excellent, as usual, as the mom, matched by seasoned actor Li Tien-chu’s (李天柱) seemingly effortless performance. Taiwanese cinema’s new favorite Guey Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) dabbles in light comedy, with slight success. The biggest flaw of the film is its hasty ending, which may leave audiences unsatisfied.