A cold front has descended on the seventh Pusan International Film Festival (PIFF), sending temperatures into the zero digits. But the weather has done little to chill the ardor of movie fans in South Korea's second-largest city. Streets were packed yesterday around the cineplexes with crowds lining up to watch the movies and join in on the discussions, especially those dedicated to Taiwanese film, which were held yesterday and on Tuesday. These two days saw a series of four screenings, two open discussions and one outdoor presentation featuring Taiwanese films and directors, as well as a Taiwan Night at the Paradise Beach Hotel at Haeundae. More than 10 Taiwan directors were embraced by the media and film professionals at these events, including Chang Tso-chi (
Since the festival's opening, PIFF Square in Pusan's Nam-po Dong area has been bustling with throngs of moviegoers, street vendors and out-door Jazz sessions in the evening. On Tuesday night much of the attention was devoted to the Taiwanese film The Trigger (
The Trigger presents the dilemma faced by a young man who comes from a middle-class family in Taiwan. Should he pursue his own personal happiness or should he fulfill his obligations: to his mother, who is a religious fanatic; to the ex-gang leader who took care of him like a father; and to his dysfunctional girlfriend, who was molested by her stepfather?
PHOTO: YU SEN-LUN, TAIPEI TIMES
"I wanted people to see this film as a tragedy, so that after having seen it, they would feel that real life is not so unbearable," Yang said in question and answer session.
The Trigger is being shown as part of the New Currents section, the PIFF's competitive section, which showcases the work of first-time Asian directors.
Another Taiwanese film, Brave 20 by Wang Ming-tai, is also competing in this section.
Yang, a virtual unknown when the PIFF opened, has received a surprising level of support from the mostly 20-something audiences here. After Yang's question and answer session, people lined up to get his autograph on their festival tickets and pamphlets. A number of people even pursued him outside the theater in order to get a picture with him. Director Tsai Ming-liang and actor Lee Kang-sheng were met with a similar outpouring of star-struck behavior after the showing of their film Rebels of the Neon God.
A warm reception also greeted documentary maker Hsiao Chu-chen's (蕭菊貞) latest project, Our Time, Our Story -- 20 Years of New Taiwan Cinema (白鴿計劃). This and twelve other films by Taiwanese filmmakers, including Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang Tsai Ming-liang and Ang Lee (李安) were part of a special program on Taiwanese movies at the PIFF titled From New Wave to Independent: Taiwanese Cinema 1982 to 2002.
Hsiao interviewed 50 professionals in the Taiwanese film industry over the span of three months for Our Stories, his documentary about the golden age of Taiwan cinema. This movement, which came to be known as New Taiwan Cinema, lifted Taiwanese movies from the moribund genres of martial arts and propaganda to a new level of realism and sophistication, making them an international force. Inspired by the French New Wave, the movement began with the lifting of censorship laws in the 1970s which allowed a group of young Taiwanese directors who had returned from study overseas, including Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, to make movies that reflected the effects of rapid urbanization on families and traditional society in a modern, multi-ethnic Taiwan.
"It all happened at the right time with right people coming together, and most importantly, we had a base, a headquarters," Hou Hsiao-hsien said while introducing the Taiwanese films at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
At Taiwan Night, three generations of Taiwanese directors were gathered under one roof at the Paradise Beach Hotel in Haeundae, from pioneers such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, directors from the 1990s such as Tsai Ming-liang, and Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂) and Alex Yang from the new millennium.
Hou, fresh from his duties as the jury chairman at the Golden Horse, said he saw a lot of new talent and new great films at this year's festival in Kaohsiung. "We should create more opportunities such as this for Asian filmmakers to exchange ideas, and debate with each other," he said.
For Hou the PIFF program is not just a retrospective on Taiwan cinema. Pointing out Cheng Wen-tang's Somewhere Over the Dreamland (
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