In his 20-year filmmaking career, Lin Jing-jie (林靖傑) has always strived to be a pure artist — the type that is full of dedication and determination with a flagrant disregard for compromise. Ironically, being a film director in Taiwan means that 99 percent of what Lin does has nothing to do with artistic endeavor — until he takes matters into his own hands.
“I pulled together the money myself, set up my own team, produced and distributed my own film,” Lin, 48, says in reference to his second feature Elena (愛琳娜) [reviewed in the June 5 Taipei Times], a working-class family drama-cum-romantic comedy. Premiering at Kaohsiung Film Festival (高雄電影節) last October, the film has received rave reviews. Some predict that it could be a smash hit like Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
But no major film distributors expressed interest in the movie. Lin tried hard to seek external support until March, when he assembled his own distribution team. With little money, Lin and his crew resorted to direct interaction with the audience to gain exposure. They have toured with the film from city to city, held countless preview screenings and spoke to whoever showed up.
Photo Courtesy of SoulGood Films
Lin says the state of Taiwanese cinema has changed considerably since his art-house debut The Most Distant Course (最遙遠的距離) was released in 2007.
“Compared to eight years ago, the situation has become even more unfavorable,” he says.
OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM
Photo Courtesy of SoulGood Films
Lin’s observation is contrary to the common belief that Taiwanese cinema has been surging after the 2008 film Cape No. 7 led to the revival of the industry. Audiences are coming back. The number of Taiwanese movies being made has increased, with some doing very well at the box office.
However, Lin says that as the market came back to life, many “professionals and analysts” also emerged, imposing criteria on what type of movie can or cannot sell.
According to the criteria, the profitable genre is the big-budget flick featuring a big-name cast with China as its main target market. It should preferably be a romantic comedy like those by bestselling writer and director Giddens Ko (柯景騰), also known as Jiu Ba-dao (九把刀), or follow the formula of local comedies such as Night Market Hero (雞排英雄, 2011), Din Tao: Leader of the Parade (陣頭) and David Loman (大尾鱸鰻, 2013).
Photo Courtesy of SoulGood Films
Films which fall outside the criteria are considered to have no commercial value in the eyes of investors and distributors. Elena happens to be one of them.
“If your film is not a Taiwanese-Chinese co-production, doesn’t have Chu Ko Liang (豬哥亮, a comedian often starring in local blockbusters) in it and a respectable budget of over NT$100 million, it’s as good as dead,” Lin says.
CREATIVE FREEDOM
Photo Courtesy of SoulGood Films
To ensure he has total creative control and freedom, Lin directed, produced and co-wrote Elena. Five years in the making, it offers a rare cinematic portrait of a typical Taiwanese family and the people around them — a subject matter that has been on Lin’s mind ever since he started making films.
“It takes years to hone ones’ skills and gain the ability to tackle such a topic,” he says. “You need to have enough experiences and life perspective to be able to truly portray people like your father, mother, brothers, sisters and friends, who are crude and unbearable, but at the same time, loving and full of life.”
Growing up one of 13 children in a working-class family in Kaohsiung, Lin is no stranger to the kind of life he depicts in Elena. However, it was the period of rapid democratic development following the lifting of martial law in 1987 that awakened his social and political consciousness.
“I was so fortunate to live through that historical moment in my twenties,” Lin says.
“That kind of experience changes you and stays with you forever. It opens you up to new ideas. But it could also make you more cautious, afraid of making changes and progressing.”
Evidently, Lin falls under the former category.
Over the years, Lin has taken a sober look at the socially underprivileged. His 2004 documentary Taipei, Looking Up (台北幾米), for example, focuses on Southeast Asian and Aboriginal laborers. His 2003 television film, We Don’t Have a Future Together, (我倆沒有明天) depicts a love story between a Taiwanese mover and a Philippine maid.
In 2006, Lin voiced his support for the Collective of Sex Workers and Supporters (日日春關懷互助協會, COSWAS), a group aiming to destigmatize and re-legalize prostitution, with the making of Street Survivor (嘜相害), an award-winning short film about an exploited sex worker and a low-ranking police officer. Shot in five days with a two-man crew and with help from musician Lim Giong (林強) and editor Chen Hsiao-tung (陳曉東), the piece was completed in time for a COSWAS protest calling for more rights for street prostitutes.
Elena vividly portrays the social ills and political injustice in society through the everyday lives of its characters. Some scenes show a violin-playing masked heroine who sides with laid-off workers, foreign laborers, new immigrants and sex workers at protests and street demonstrations.
“That part of the film appears to be a fantasy,” Lin says. “It is fantastical all right, but to me, it is also a reflection of the collective awareness to right the wrongs done to the underprivileged.”
The film has been doing fairly well at the box office since its release on June 5, earning more than NT$1 million on its opening day in Taipei. However, despite the enthusiastic response, most of its screening slots, have quickly given way to Hollywood blockbusters like Jurassic World and San Andreas.
Lin says it is a bitter pill to swallow.
“We always thought that if you make a good movie and people love it, theaters would want to show it. It is not as simple as that. It is not a market out there. It is a Jurassic world,” he said.
And the director believes the situation calls for continuous resistance.
“The important thing is how to form an army and fight the war,” he says.
Elena is currently playing in theaters in Taipei, Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Hualien, with only one screening a day at most venues. The film has English and Chinese subtitles.
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