The Taiwanese film Monga (艋舺), which features scenes of gangster fights and brothels in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), hit theaters nationwide earlier this month amid expectation from one of its sponsors, the Taipei City Government, that the movie would help market the city.
The movie, which tells the story of a group of gangsters in Wanhua in the 1980s, was one of the 16 films the Taipei Film Commission subsidized last year aimed at enhancing the city’s public profile.
The commission was formed in 2008 by Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs to provide assistance and financial support to local and foreign filmmakers.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
However, it was not until the city missed the opportunity of garnering widespread exposure in the hit TV drama Black & White (痞子英雄) that it began to take more assertive steps in building a “movie-friendly” environment in Taipei.
Black & White was originally set in Taipei City, but director Tsai Yueh-hsun (蔡岳勳) moved the production team to Kaohsiung City after the Taipei City Government turned down his request to film a kidnapping scene in the city’s MRT stations.
Kaohsiung came away smiling, as city landmarks featured in the show became popular tourist attractions.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) said the Taipei Rapid Transit Corp had turned down the production team’s request because it would have affected a great number of passengers if the MRT had shut down services for the sake of the film crew.
Hau said he instructed all city departments to report to the commission when receiving filming requests from TV or film companies to enable the city government to provide prompt assistance.
Seeking to duplicate Kaohsiung’s success, the Taipei City Government stepped up its efforts to promote the city via films. One example was Hear Me (聽說), which was sponsored by the city government to promote the Taipei Deaflympics last year. The film earned NT$30 million (US$934,600) at the box office and received good reviews.
Another film, Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), produced by German director Wim Wenders and scheduled to have its premiere this year, received permission to shoot in the MRT’s Xiaonanmen Station after the MRT service closed at midnight.
The city also provided financial and administrative support for Monga. The movie, which was filmed exclusively in Taipei, received a NT$4 million subsidy from the commission.
The city government also closed off Huasi Street Night Market twice for the film crew to shoot chase scenes.
Commission director Jennifer Jao (饒紫娟) said the commission budgeted NT$25 million to subsidize 16 films and provide assistance to 124 films shot in the city last year.
The budget was increased to NT$30 million for this year, and the commission has appropriated NT$10 million to seven local films chosen for sponsorship during the first half of the year.
The commission was also involved in co-productions with 18 different countries, including the US, Japan, South Korea and India, she said.
Jao said the commission handled most production issues, including scouting suitable locations for film crews and coordinating government agencies such the police and traffic departments to make it easier for filmmakers to obtain the necessary permits.
The commission also helped foreign filmmakers find suitable locations outside Taipei, attracting more film crews to shoot scenes in the city, she said.
“A German film crew said they needed to shoot a desert scene after finishing the shots in Taipei, and we found them a vast and void landscape at a town in Miaoli County. The crew ended up shooting 70 percent of the film in Taiwan,” she said.
Jao said a Bollywood film crew that came to Taipei last year to shoot scenes in the National Palace Museum and Taipei 101, would visit the city again next month to shoot in the museum for a new film.
Figures compiled by the commission show that the National Palace Museum, MRT stations and night markets were the most popular shooting locations in Taipei.
Jao said the commission’s priority was to give financial and administrative support to films that feature recognizable scenes in Taipei that win awards at the Taipei Film Festival.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Chien Yu-yen (簡余晏), however, condemned the commission for allocating most of its subsidies to major film companies and certain filmmakers while marginalizing independent filmmakers and music video production teams.
The movie Monga, for example, took away NT$4 million from the city government, while other films sponsored by the city government only received about NT$1 million, she said.
“I respect filmmakers’ creations, but the city government should not invest most of its money on a movie that could leave a negative impression of Wanhua,” she said.
Lee Chao-cheng (李昭成), a local borough chief, agreed, saying that organized crime and prostitution were only a small part of Wanhua’s history.
Lee said the city government should focus more on the reconstruction of Wanhua and revive the economy in the old district, rather than counting on a single movie to improve the situation in the neighborhood.
Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Lee Yung-ping (李永萍) said the department did not censor the content of sponsored movies in advance, as it respected filmmakers’ freedom.
Lee urged the public not to pass judgment until they have watched the movie.
Hau also shrugged off the controversy surrounding Monga.
The Taipei mayor joined the film’s director, Doze Niu (鈕承澤), to promote a tour package featuring a number of the filming locations for Monga, including Po-Pi-Liao (剝皮寮), Longshan Temple (龍山寺), Buddhist Supply Street and Herb Alley.
“The Taipei City Government will strive to be filmmakers’ best partner by giving as much support as we can,” he said.
Chien said the DPP city council caucus would ask the commission to select movies for sponsorship in a more transparent way and strike a balance in distributing the subsidies to film, TV and music video producers.
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