Taiwanese filmmaker Yeh Tien-lun (葉天倫) never thought his directorial feature debut, Night Market Hero (雞排英雄), a two-hour fictional comedy portraying the life and resilience of night market vendors, would be such a hit.
Since it opened on Jan. 28, the film has grossed more than NT$125 million (US$4.23 million) and has taken the No. 1 spot at the local box office for 10 straight weeks, making it the third-most popular locally produced film ever, after last year’s hit Monga (艋舺) and 2008 blockbuster Cape No. 7 (海角七號).
Local audiences gave the film an enthusiastic thumbs-up, saying the movie sends a positive, uplifting message, something they think is missing from most Taiwanese films. The movie has even inspired students in Miaoli to launch a petition to save a local market. So far, 4,000 people have signed it.
Describing himself as a “movie deserter,” the 36-year-old director, who majored in film at Shih Hsin University, has come a long way since his college days, when he did not have the confidence to practice his craft.
“I lost the courage to make my own films during college,” he said in an interview late last month. “How could one feel confident after watching all the great films made by Truffaut, Godard, Bergman and other genius directors? I didn’t think I stood a chance of comparing to them.”
A dark period in his family’s history also made the director hesitant about filmmaking. His father, Yeh Chin-sheng (葉金勝), a renowned producer of local TV serials, invested NT$25 million to make a film, but the movie was such a flop that it only made NT$5 million. His father had to sell all of his assets and their house to pay off the debt.
Yeh Tien-lun feels that movie-making is in his DNA. He grew up watching his father shoot and edit films, even though it was his father’s later failure that cast a shadow over his filmmaking dreams and resulted in his choice not to pursue a career in the industry after graduation.
For 10 years, Yeh Tien-lun worked as a professional voice actor for advertising firms, a stage actor and a dancer. He even did a stint as a choirist.
Life was relatively easy with a job as a voice actor, Yeh said.
“I made NT$3 million every year. I traveled around the world whenever I wanted. I was in my early 30s, but I felt like I was stuck. I heard a calling and I knew the whole time that I did not want my life to end without making a film of my own,” he said.
The director said that he was a big fan of art-house films, but also said he watches Hollywood blockbusters and Hong Kong comedy movies. When he sat down with his sister, a screenwriter, they decided to focus on something familiar — a story about ordinary Taiwanese people — and make it interesting and funny.
Night Market Hero follows a group of vendors at the fictional Ba Ba Ba Night Market, whose lives are peppered with food rivalries and disputes about seemingly trivial matters. However, their internal skirmishes diminish when they find out that local politicians and property developers want to shut them down and seize the land on which many of them have made their living for more than a decade. The vendors eventually rally together to save the market.
Taiwan’s night market culture really says a lot about the country’s national identity, Yeh Tien-lun said.
“We are very resilient. We don’t become depressed when the odds are against us. We work very hard. Foreigners paying their first visit to the local night markets are always amazed by the fact that vendors work past midnight,” he said.
The film has generated some criticism, however, from those who argue that Yeh paints too optimistic a picture of night markets in Taiwan. They say that in real life it would not be possible for vendors to stand up against politicians and land developers.
“Criticism is a good thing. The local film industry needs the audience,” Yeh Tien-lun said in response to his critics. “But for me, many moviegoers go into the theater in search of a dream. They want to know there will be a better tomorrow and I want to be a dream-maker.”
The director also thinks that Taiwan really needs more diversified feature films so that a broader range of people are drawn to the cinema.
Even with the recent box office success of Taiwanese films, Yeh is cautious about whether to call it a renaissance after 20 years of gloomy box office figures.
“So far, only three films have broken the NT$100 million threshold. It’s too early to tell whether Taiwanese movies are making a strong comeback,” he said.
However, there are some key strategies for selling a locally made film, including a good cast, a movie budget of at least US$1 million, a distributor that knows how to market effectively and a good story that local people can relate to, he said.
“Nevertheless, in an industry where things change very fast, the success of one movie never promises anything for another one,” he said.
Night Market Hero has been nominated at the third Okinawa International Movie Festival, which will be held between March 18 and March 27, to vie in the “best comedy” category against the US feature film No Strings Attached, directed by Ivan Reitman, and Japanese film Omuraisu (Omelette Rice), directed by Yuichi Kimura.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
UNDER PRESSURE: The report cited numerous events that have happened this year to show increased coercion from China, such as military drills and legal threats The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) aims to reinforce its “one China” principle and the idea that Taiwan belongs to the People’s Republic of China by hosting celebratory events this year for the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, the “retrocession” of Taiwan and the establishment of the UN, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in its latest report to the Legislative Yuan. Taking advantage of the significant anniversaries, Chinese officials are attempting to assert China’s sovereignty over Taiwan through interviews with international news media and cross-strait exchange events, the report said. Beijing intends to reinforce its “one China” principle
A total lunar eclipse, an astronomical event often referred to as a “blood moon,” would be visible to sky watchers in Taiwan starting just before midnight on Sunday night, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said. The phenomenon is also called “blood moon” due to the reddish-orange hue it takes on as the Earth passes directly between the sun and the moon, completely blocking direct sunlight from reaching the lunar surface. The only light is refracted by the Earth’s atmosphere, and its red wavelengths are bent toward the moon, illuminating it in a dramatic crimson light. Describing the event as the most important astronomical phenomenon
RSS