A retrospective featuring dozens of lesser-known movies made in the 1980s during a period that was later characterized as the Taiwan New Cinema movement, launched in New Taipei City on Friday evening.
Thirty-one movies and short films made in Taiwan from 1982 to 1987 were selected for the retrospective “Taiwan New Cinema: Revisited” and are to be screened at the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) until Nov. 27.
The selection includes 1983’s Kendo Kids (竹劍少年) by director Chang Yi (張毅). The coming-of-age film tells the story of a group of high-school students who learn the harsh reality of the adult world in the port city of Keelung.
Photo: CNA
Director Chen Kun-hou’s (陳坤厚) My Favorite Season (最想念的季節) is also showing. The 1985 romcom depicts an independent woman who battles to find her footing in Taipei after realizing that she is pregnant by a married man.
At the opening of the film festival, Chen said the movie touches upon an issue that was seen as shocking at that time.
“But we tried to provide an alternative way of looking at it ... to explore different possibilities of handling this kind of issue,” he said.
The movie’s lead actress, Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉), who is now 69, said that of the approximately 100 movies she had been involved in over her 50 years of working in the industry, the romcom was one of her favorites.
The actress and filmmaker, who won the film category of the National Award for Arts on Friday, said filmmakers in the 1980s were not preoccupied with the idea of making something new or innovative.
“At that time, we were just hoping to tell the stories of our generation,” Chang said.
The Taiwan New Cinema movement was a breakthrough, because Taiwanese movies made during that period gained international recognition for the first time, institute president Lan Tsu-wei (藍祖蔚) said.
The movies were reflective of Taiwan’s sociopolitical situation in the 1980s and filmmakers at that time used their lens “to look at what was actually happening on our island,” Lan said, adding that the cinematic movement marked a clear departure from the period preceding it, in which martial arts, melodrama and political propaganda took center stage.
By hosting the retrospective, the institute is hoping to promote lesser-known Taiwan New Cinema films at home and abroad during 40th anniversary of the the movement’s inception, Lan said.
The institute looks forward to finding collaborators to take the retrospective on tour in other countries, he added.
Despite its focus on lesser-known films, the retrospective also features two internationally acclaimed movies: Edward Yang’s (楊德昌) A Brighter Summer Day (牯嶺街少年殺人事件), which won Best Feature Film at the 1991 Golden Horse Awards, and Dust in the Wind (戀戀風塵) by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢).
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
REWRITING HISTORY: China has been advocating a ‘correct’ interpretation of the victory over Japan that brings the CCP’s contributions to the forefront, an expert said An elderly Chinese war veteran’s shin still bears the mark of a bullet wound he sustained when fighting the Japanese as a teenager, a year before the end of World War II. Eighty years on, Li Jinshui’s scar remains as testimony to the bravery of Chinese troops in a conflict that killed millions of their people. However, the story behind China’s overthrow of the brutal Japanese occupation is deeply contested. Historians broadly agree that credit for victory lies primarily with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-led Republic of China (ROC) Army. Its leader, Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石), fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a
RSS