Toward the end of Tsai Ming-liang’s (蔡明亮) Goodbye Dragon Inn (不散), an aged film star half whispers to another: “No one goes to the movies anymore. And no one remembers us anymore.”
Tsai’s 2003 film, which takes place entirely inside Taipei’s historic Fu Ho theater shortly before its demolition, mourns the death of an older cinematic culture, a time before laptops and multiplex chains, when cinema meant a community of strangers coming together to inhabit an intimate world.
MOVIE HOUSES
Photo courtesy of Wang Xueli
But Tsai’s nostalgia was perhaps premature. The Fu Ho theater may not have survived a new age of endless screens and shrinking attention spans, but Taiwanese cinephilia did not disappear. Indeed, for years now the love of cinema has lived on in Taipei — not in the hyper-commercial multiplex, nor the sterile white cube gallery, but in cozy and convivial cafes.
On weeknights in the cultural hub of Taipei’s Gongguan (公館) and Shida Night Market (師大夜市), it is not unusual to find crowds of locals perched together in cafes, their faces lit up by scenes from an art-house or cult film. Fueled in large part by the vibrant community of cinephiles from National Taiwan University and National Taiwan Normal University, cafes have in recent years made film screenings a regular part of their weekly programming.
Admission to these films is typically a cup of coffee — arrive early to secure a seat — and range from European art films, early Taiwanese New Wave, Korean horror movies and independent cinema from China.
HALFWAY CAFE (半路咖啡)
At Halfway Cafe, the screenings feature an eclectic mix of all of the above. The space, like most Taipei cafes, is the size of a living room. On any given Friday night, one will find it filled with filmgoers.
Past screenings have included the Coen brothers’ debut Blood Simple (1984), Park Chan-wook’s infamous thriller Old Boy (2003), Werner Herzog’s darkly humorous Even Dwarves Start Small (1970) and most recently, a curious North Korean revolutionary opera called The Flower Girl (1972). Most Chinese-language films are shown with English subtitles, though usually Chinese subtitles only come with non-Chinese films.
According to Halfway’s film organizer, Ba Tun (巴頓), the point of the cafe format is in part to move away from passive spectatorship and encourage greater viewer interaction and participation.
“Here, everyone can sit and drink coffee, and afterwards stay and chat about the film,” Ba says.
In the coming weeks, Ba looks forward to sharing works by Chinese auteurs Jia Zhangke (賈樟柯) and Zhang Yuan (張元).
■ Address: 9, Alley 51, Ln 269 Roosevelt Rd, Sec 3, Taipei City (台北市羅斯福路三段269巷51弄9號)
■ On the Net: www.facebook.com/半路咖啡-766746760013130/
INSOMNIA CAFE (睡不著咖啡)
A two-minute walk from Halfway is Insomnia Cafe. Compared to its neighbors, most of which have only recently arrived on the underground film scene, Insomnia can be considered a veteran film space. According to the cafe’s owner, Insomnia has been holding screenings for at least five years. Its films are curated by a Taiwanese writer who prefers for each series to focus on a specific auteur. Past series have showcased the oeuvres of Yasujiro Ozu, Bela Tarr and the Dardenne brothers. Currently there is a comprehensive retrospective on the Polish art-house master Krzysztof Kieslowski.
Insomnia’s screening room is on a lower level below the cafe area, where art-house enthusiasts spread themselves comfortably across couches and armchairs every Wednesday evening, coffee in hand. If you arrive late, order a drink at the bar and head downstairs through the sliding door. The barista will bring the drink down to you when it’s ready.
With its impeccable film selection and elegant decor, Insomnia Cafe matches in charm and character New York’s Film Forum, Paris’ Le Champo, and London’s Barbican Center, without any of the formality and pretension that sometimes pervade these other art-house cinemas.
In his 2003 elegy to cinema as a social form, Tsai could not have imagined that cinephilia would thrive on in a new setting over 10 years later. In the space of the cafe, one gets the sense of being at home among friends. For a younger generation of film lovers, the cafe screening has breathed new life into the cinematic experience, by restoring to it perhaps its most essential — and most forgotten — aspect: human interaction.
■ Address: Insomnia Cafe (睡不著咖啡), 8, Taishun St, Ln 60, Taipei City (台北市泰順街60巷8號)
■ On the Net: www.facebook.com/insomnia.cafe
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
The following three paragraphs are just some of what the local Chinese-language press is reporting on breathlessly and following every twist and turn with the eagerness of a soap opera fan. For many English-language readers, it probably comes across as incomprehensibly opaque, so bear with me briefly dear reader: To the surprise of many, former pop singer and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) ex-lawmaker Yu Tien (余天) of the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association (TNCPA) at the last minute dropped out of the running for committee chair of the DPP’s New Taipei City chapter, paving the way for DPP legislator Su
It’s hard to know where to begin with Mark Tovell’s Taiwan: Roads Above the Clouds. Having published a travelogue myself, as well as having contributed to several guidebooks, at first glance Tovell’s book appears to inhabit a middle ground — the kind of hard-to-sell nowheresville publishers detest. Leaf through the pages and you’ll find them suffuse with the purple prose best associated with travel literature: “When the sun is low on a warm, clear morning, and with the heat already rising, we stand at the riverside bike path leading south from Sanxia’s old cobble streets.” Hardly the stuff of your
April 22 to April 28 The true identity of the mastermind behind the Demon Gang (魔鬼黨) was undoubtedly on the minds of countless schoolchildren in late 1958. In the days leading up to the big reveal, more than 10,000 guesses were sent to Ta Hwa Publishing Co (大華文化社) for a chance to win prizes. The smash success of the comic series Great Battle Against the Demon Gang (大戰魔鬼黨) came as a surprise to author Yeh Hung-chia (葉宏甲), who had long given up on his dream after being jailed for 10 months in 1947 over political cartoons. Protagonist