Sat, Apr 27, 2002 page17

• Moviemaker turns to lunchboxes

  CHANGING CAREERS Having lost most of his money in the local film industry, Chen Ang-chun diverted his attention and became an entrepreneur of a true necessity -- food

  • By Joyce Huang / STAFF REPORTER
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  For renowned moviemaker and now traditional lunchbox vendor Chen Ang-chun (陳昂駿), the economic downturn could be considered both a curse and a blessing.

  While he failed to survive Taiwan's dying movie business he has turned a dollar in an unlikely occupation, selling lunchboxes.

  

  Chen Ang-chun, former renowned moviemaker, shows off one of the traditional lunchboxes made at one of his restaurants. Chan says that the lunchbox business doesn't suffer as much as other businesses in hard economic times because people have to eat.

  PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES

  "The lunchbox business has little to do with the nation's economic prosperity since people have to eat everyday," Chen, owner of the Nostalgic Lunchbox (懷念便當) chain stores, told the Taipei Times yesterday while overseeing his staff working on the lunchbox-making assembly line before lunchtime.

  Then the phone rang and orders arrived, the 48-year old Chen kicked off his busiest hours by sending out lunchbox deliveries to the office-working class.

  "With eight chain stores in greater Taipei, over 3,000 lunchboxes are sold per day," Chen said. At NT$65 per lunchbox, Chen takes in NT$200,000 per day or NT$4 million in monthly revenues -- better than he fared at making movies.

  When he was in his 20s, Chen entered the film industry working as a painter for movie signboards and later made movies himself, investing in dozens of films. More recently, he put down his life-long savings producing the award-winning movie Such a Life (一隻鳥仔哮啾啾), which won the best film award in 1997 Asia-Pacific Film Festival.

  However, the showing at the box office was poor and Chen was broke.

  When the industry headed south for several years, Chen had little choice but to find other work.

  "The domestic film industry is dead. No one wants to go to Taiwanese movies when you've got Hollywood movies," he recalled.

  But still, movie-making is his dream.

  "Making movies can get you so addicted that I think about it all the time even after having lost hundreds of millions of dollars in the business," Chen sighed, adding that he will return to the art form if he has the opportunity.

  To support his movie-making crew, including directors and producers, Chen started his lunchbox business last June in memory of the 1940s well-known railway lunchbox from Toufen in Miaoli County where he used to visit his former girlfriend several decades ago.

  At that time, Toufen railway lunchboxes were so famous that even the late president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) patronized the restaurant frequently.

  Sticking to the original flavor, Chen insisted on using fresh ingredients for his single-selection lunchbox business. The old-fashioned stewed pork, egg, tofu and pickled cabbage pack Chen's wooden-container or tin-container lunchboxes. Yet the taste is never old-fashioned, instead, customers say, it is just like home cooking.

  "The pork is so well cooked and very tasty," said Hung Yu-ju (洪于茹), a 22-year-old female college student, who yesterday patronized Chen's store.

  "It's a very homey taste," she added.

  The homey taste, moreover, attracts daily patrons.

  "Basically, I come here to eat a meal everyday, five days a week," said a 23-year-old student, surnamed Kung (康).

  "They give good value for the money," he added.

  With his initial success, Chen later took over several coffee shops, which failed to survive the economic downturn, at a very good discount, taking advantage of existent kitchenwares and decor.

  With some minor refurnishing, these new stores were ready to serve coffee, tea and set meals in addition to traditional lunchboxes.

  Further eyeing China's market, Chen has visited Shanghai a few times, planning to branch out there.

  "Shanghai people's consumption power is getting stronger and stronger; they can afford to buy lunchboxes priced between 10 to 12 yuan," Chen said, adding that the expected net profit in Shanghai may be higher than that in Taiwan.

  Chen added that he also noticed that Chinese are fond of Taiwanese products.
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