The locally produced psychological horror film Detention (返校) was the biggest winner at the Taipei Film Awards on Saturday, snatching up the NT$1 million (US$33,769) grand prize and five others.
The high-grossing film, adapted from a video game of the same name, also clinched awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Actress, Best Art Design, Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Design.
The film grossed more than NT$67.7 million at the box office in its first three days.
Photo: Chiang Ying-ying, AP
Set in the 1960s during the White Terror era, the movie follows two high school students trapped in an empty school full of vengeful spirits, as they search for a teacher who has disappeared.
The jury praised the film as unique in Taiwan’s movie history.
“This movie opens new doors for filmmaking in Taiwan because the idea for the film came from a video game, but it also addresses Taiwan’s White Terror history,” jury president Wu Nien-jen (吳念真) said.
“This is a direction that Taiwan can build on in the future,” Wu said.
Gingle Wang (王淨) won Best Actress for her role in the film.
Mo Tzu-yi (莫子儀) won Best Actor for the crime drama Dear Tenant (親愛的房客), which investigates the death of a grandmother and the tenant of her rooftop apartment.
Chang Jung-chi (張榮吉) won Best Director for the basketball drama We Are Champions (下半場), which focuses on the relationship of two brothers.
The film also clinched the awards for Best Cinematography, accepted by filmmaker Chen Ta-pu (陳大璞), and Outstanding Artistic Contribution, won by stunt performer Hung Shih-hao (洪?顥) and choreographer Chia Fan (賈凡).
The Best Documentary award was given to Wu Hui-ling (吳蕙伶) on behalf of her elder sister Wu Yu-ying (吳郁瑩), who directed The Good Daughter (阿紫), a film about the staggering account of a Vietnamese immigrant who faces a dilemma in trying to support her disabled husband and her family in Vietnam.
The film focuses on the marginalized community and records the challenges people at the edge of society face, the jury said.
Wu Yu-ying also won the Best Editing award for the documentary.
Lo Chen-wen (羅晨文) accepted the award for Best Short Film for directing the 16-minute In This Land We’re Briefly Ghosts (幽魂之境).
Based on a true story, the movie follows 12-year-old soldier Su Su Myat and her mute brother, who are imprisoned after deserting their unit. Denied food and water, Su Su Myat is forced to choose between killing her ill brother or risking dying with him.
This year, 331 films — 51 feature films, 49 documentaries, 187 short films and 44 animations — were submitted to the awards’ selection committee.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
ENTERTAINERS IN CHINA: Taiwanese generally back the government being firm on infiltration and ‘united front’ work,’ the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association said Most people support the government probing Taiwanese entertainers for allegedly “amplifying” the Chinese Communist Party’s propaganda, a survey conducted by the Asia-Pacific Elite Interchange Association showed on Friday. Public support stood at 56.4 percent for action by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Culture to enhance scrutiny on Taiwanese performers and artists who have developed careers in China while allegedly adhering to the narrative of Beijing’s propaganda that denigrates or harms Taiwanese sovereignty, the poll showed. Thirty-three percent did not support the action, it showed. The poll showed that 51.5 percent of respondents supported the government’s investigation into Taiwanese who have
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of