The Golden Horse Film Festival flags hung on the streets and posters plastered on buses, bus stops and bookstore windows announce that it's time again for Taipei's largest film event of the year.
In the poster, stars such as Bruce Lee (
The Golden Horse is divided into two parts -- the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, a two-week screening of international movies, and the Golden Horse Awards, a film award traditionally recognizing outstanding figures in Chinese-language cinema.
The festival will take place first, starting Thursday and running until Dec 12. More than 100 international films, selected from the Cannes, Berlin, Venice and Rotterdam film festivals will be showcased at Taipei's Warner Village.
The Golden Horse Awards will screen the films nominated for this year's Golden Horse Awards, and, in celebration of the awards' 40th anniversary, will showcase the 40 winners in the best picture category from 1963 to 2002. There will also be a comprehensive retrospective on the films of Leslie Cheung (
The Golden Horse will wrap up with a star-studded awards ceremony on Dec 13 at the Tainan City Cultural Center.
Tickets for the opening and closing movies sold like hot cakes this year and many other screenings have been sold out for weeks. However, tickets remain for many of the event's popular movies. Below is information on some of the festival's best films, most of which still had tickets available as of press time.
Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Hot Movies
Sweet Sixteen: British director Ken Loach newest sharp and powerful social critique about a Glasgow boy's trying to save his drug-addict mother. The film won best screenplay at Cannes last year and best picture at the British Independent Film Awards.
Elephant: This year's Golden Palm winner at Cannes. Gus Van Sant takes uses a documentary style, with a hand-held camera and realistic shots to recount what happened on the day of Columbine High School shooting. The first two thirds of the movie is about the banality of high school life before the sudden, brutal shock of the violence that follows.
The Barbarian Invasion: A powerful drama about a seriously ill father facing the last few days of his life. His wife, his mistress, his sons and daughter all try to relieve his pain. This is a film to make you laugh and cry or both at the same time.
The Magdalene Sisters: The 2002 Golden Lion winner at Venice, this film, set in the 1960s, is about three Irish women imprisoned and forced into hard labor in a monastery. The film's depiction of the inhumane treatment and morbidity of the monastic world made it a strong, but controversial movie.
The Dreamers: Roberto Bertolucci's story set in the 1968 Paris student movement period. An American exchange student goes to France and visits his French friend and his sister in a Paris apartment. They soon become entangled in a torrid triangular relationship.
American Splendor: A refreshingly simple story about a man named Harvey, who is an ordinary hospital administration worker, who makes his mundane life into comic books which then become bestsellers. He then becomes the most famous ordinary person in America. The film's blend of drama, documentary and animation made it a sweeping success at Sundance and Cannes.
24 Hour Party People: This story about the rise and fall of Anthony Wilson's famous record label Factory Records is a wild romp with plenty of sex, drugs and rock `n' roll that documents the careers of Manchester bands like Joy Division, The Happy Mondays, New Order and more as they rose to dominate the pop music scene. A music fan's must-see movie.
Shara: A melancholy story about a family's hidden secret. Young woman director Naomi Kawase's third movie is another film with beautiful cinematography about a boy finding out about his twin brother's mysterious death.
Last Life in The Universe: A must-see for fans of Chris Doyle. The story tells of a depressed Japanese man on run with a mysterious Thai woman wandering the streets of Bangkok after accidentally killing a gang leader.
Blue: A beautiful lesbian story adapted from the classic Japanese comic by the same title about a love between two high school girls in a seaside town.
Below are some of the festival's sold-out films that will have a general release shortly after the festival:
Good-bye, Dragon Inn (
Devdas: The second opening film, a typical Bollywood flick with grand scenes, rich music and beautiful actors.
In America: Jim Sheridan's drama about an Irish family immigrating to the US.
Good-bye, Lenin: Germany's strong runner for next year's best foreign-language Oscar.
Le Divorce: Two American sisters playing the dating game in Paris, starring Naomi Watts and Kate Hudson.
The Blue Light: A Japanese drama with a pop idol cast, about a teenage murder case.
The Missing (
Intacto: A Spanish thriller.
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