With record-breaking blockbuster Cape No. 7 (海角七號), 2008 saw a renaissance of Taiwanese cinema, which had been in decline since the early 1990s. The momentum has been maintained this year with more newcomers arriving on the scene. If new works by this younger generation of filmmakers are any indication, the auteur age that saw the rise of art-house masters such as Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) is a thing of the past. What follows is a new breed of filmmakers whose top priority is to tell a good story.
On the commercial end, Invitation Only (絕命派對), 25-year-old director Kevin Ko’s (柯孟融) feature debut, is a competent addition to the genre of horror films made popular by the Saw and Hostel series. More tender in tone, Norwegian-Taiwanese Hakon Liu’s (劉漢威) feature debut Miss Kicki (霓虹心) is a Taiwanese-Swedish co-production that mixes a road-movie style with a coming-of-age tale.
A considerable amount of diversity is shown in the directors’ choices of subject matter. The country’s new immigrants and migrant workers from Southeast Asian countries take center stage in film critic Rich Lee’s (李奇) debut feature Detours to Paradise (歧路天堂). Documentary director Kuo Chen-ti (郭珍弟) touches upon the life of the elderly (who are often overlooked in mainstream Taiwanese cinema) in dance genre flick Step by Step (練•戀•舞), which weds star charisma with comedy.
Taiwan’s tradition of producing strong documentaries continues with Wuna Wu’s (吳汰紝) Let’s Fall in Love (尋情歷險記), a humorous take on modern-day match-making. Baseball Boys (野球孩子) by Shen Ko-shang (沈可尚) and Liao Ching-yao (廖敬堯) dispenses with the dramatic moments and narrative climaxes popularized by documentaries such as Jump! Boys (翻滾吧！男孩) and My Football Summer (奇蹟的夏天) to dwell on snippets of everyday life in its portrait of a group of young athletes on the cusp of adolescence.
But the film deserving the most kudos this year is undoubtedly actor-turned-director Leon Dai’s (戴立忍) second feature No Pudeo Vivir Sin Ti (不能沒有你), which swept last month’s Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎) by winning in five categories including Best Feature Film, Best Director and Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year.
A long-term collaborator with director Singing Chen (陳芯宜), Lou Yi-an (樓一安) hands in his feature debut A Place of One’s Own (一席之地), a socially conscious film with a multi-threaded narrative. Like Chen, Lou is a name to watch, showing great potential in his insightful observations on contemporary Taiwanese society. However, Lou’s debut displays weakness that also can be found in Chen’s God Man Dog (流浪神狗人). In dealing with modern existential angst, both films lack subtlety, and the anguish of their protagonists comes across as more constructed than felt. The pair will be irresistible if they overcome this defect.
Box office success Hear Me (聽說) cements up-and-coming director Cheng Fen-fen’s (鄭芬芬) status as a whiz kid of youthful romance. An award-winning scriptwriter, Cheng has a flair for storytelling and knows how to turn this talent to her advantage when yarning lighthearted romances starring young pop idols.
After his rather messy feature debut Do Over (一年之初), director Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑) returns with well executed Yang Yang (陽陽), a coming-of-age story tailor-made for half-Taiwanese, half-French star Sandrine Pinna (張榕容). Shot mostly in long takes with handheld, fluid camera and natural lighting, the film excels in a masterful control of cinematography and succeeds in creating a complicated heroine through a simple, focused narrative.
Finally, let’s not forget an old master who made Taiwanese cinema world famous. Tsai Ming-liang makes it to the Louvre with Face (臉) (runner up for Best Feature Film at Golden Horse), a deeply personal yet ambitious project posited as a cinematic dream in which the boundaries between life and film are blurred. With Face, Tsai once again proves that he is an artist like no other.
Japan is celebrated for its exceptional levels of customer service. But the behavior of a growing number of customers and clients leaves a lot to be desired. The rise of the abusive consumer has prompted authorities in Tokyo to introduce the country’s first ordinance — a locally approved regulation — to protect service industry staff from kasuhara — the Japanese abbreviated form of “customer harassment.” While the Tokyo ordinance, which will go into effect in April, does not carry penalties, experts hope the move will highlight a growing social problem and, perhaps, encourage people to think twice before taking out their frustrations
Two years ago my wife and I went to Orchid Island off Taitung for a few days vacation. We were shocked to realize that for what it cost us, we could have done a bike vacation in Borneo for a week or two, or taken another trip to the Philippines. Indeed, most of the places we could have gone for that vacation in neighboring countries offer a much better experience than Taiwan at a much lower price. Hence, the recent news showing that tourist visits to Pingtung County’s Kenting, long in decline, reached a 27 year low this summer came
From a Brooklyn studio that looks like a cross between a ransacked Toys R Us and a serial killer’s lair, the artist David Henry Nobody Jr is planning the first survey of his career. Held by a headless dummy strung by its heels from the ceiling are a set of photographs from the turn of the century of a then 30-year-old Nobody with the former president of the US. The snapshots are all signed by Donald Trump in gold pen (Nobody supplied the pen). They will be a central piece of the New York artist’s upcoming survey in New York. This
In the tourism desert that is most of Changhua County, at least one place stands out as a remarkable exception: one of Taiwan’s earliest Han Chinese settlements, Lukang. Packed with temples and restored buildings showcasing different eras in Taiwan’s settlement history, the downtown area is best explored on foot. As you make your way through winding narrow alleys where even Taiwanese scooters seldom pass, you are sure to come across surprise after surprise. The old Taisugar railway station is a good jumping-off point for a walking tour of downtown Lukang. Though the interior is not open to the public, the exterior
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