The film set of the popular Taiwanese movie Monga (艋舺) will be dismantled tomorrow after being preserved for almost one year as an exhibition to help boost tourism in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華).
Parts of the set — the house of the protagonist, barber shop and the old street — in Wanhua’s Bopiliao (剝皮寮) old city area were preserved after the shooting for the film was completed last year and became a popular tourist attraction for fans of the movie.
Chang Ting (張婷), a division chief of Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, said the film set had attracted more than 370,000 tourists since February, and it helped boost the tourism in the district to about 600,000 tourists this year.
“The film set really helped boost local tourism and the economy, but the sets were not meant to be preserved forever. Besides, there will be new TV and film crews starting shooting in the area soon, and hopefully they will bring different styles to Bopiliao,” she said.
The department will keep the set for the protagonist’s house on exhibition until the end of next year, and it will organize a series of arts activities to maintain the old town area’s popularity, Chang said.
Following the blockbuster, more than 12 local and foreign crews have filmed in Wanhua since last year, turning the old neighborhood into a popular attraction in Taipei and creating at least NT$1.2 billion (US$39 million) worth of business opportunities in the area, according to the department.
Monga, 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 with the aim of enhancing the city’s profile.
Many of the film locations for Monga, including Huasi Street Night Market, Longshan Temple, Buddhist Supply Street and Herb Alley, all became popular destinations for tourists.
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