Taiwanese director Fu Tien-yu (傅天余) was presented a Kurosawa Akira Award at the Tokyo International Film Festival (TIFF) on Tuesday for her feature film Day Off (本日公休), event organizers said in a news release.
Fu’s film follows the protagonist, a female barber, embarking on a long journey to cut the hair of an old customer who moved away and is too sick to travel, the Ministry of Culture’s Taiwan Creative Content Agency said.
At the awards ceremony, TIFF programming director Ichiyama Shozo, who is also a selection committee member, said that Fu showed the same spirit in Taiwanese New Cinema wave and “depicted life in Taiwan realistically and sympathetically.”
Photo: CNA
Veteran Japanese director Yamada Yoji said that Fu’s film was “a really lovely film, which depicts people with precision and warmth,” and praised Fu’s “state-of-the-art” cinematic expression.
Yamada added that the movie made him wonder “why can’t the Japanese make this kind of work?”
After expressing gratitude for her recognition from the festival and the committee members, Fu called Yamada her “idol” and said she gets “great power from his work.”
Asked by a Taiwanese journalist how she felt about the future of young filmmakers in Taiwan, Fu said that her generation is different from Akira Kurosawa’s, but that she feels that “film is precious.”
The experience of going to a dark theater and sharing a film with others is irreplaceable, she said.
“I will put all my heart and soul into making films in the future,” she added.
The Kurosawa Akira Award “was born because many younger filmmakers don’t know the work of Akira Kurosawa, and we wanted to help pass down his name and spirit,” TIFF chairman Ando Hiroyasu said.
Akira Kurosawa was a Japanese director often cited as one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
After being established in 2004, the award was discontinued for 14 years before being resumed in 2022.
Fu was the second Taiwanese director to receive the award, after Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢).
This year, recipients of the award each received a crystal trophy and a ￥1 million (US$6,485) cash prize.
In addition to Ichiyama Shozo and Yamada Yoji, this year’s selection committee consisted of casting director Narahashi Yoko and film critic Kawamoto Saburo.
The TIFF, now in its 37th year, last year declared its mission was “to amplify the possibilities of cinema from Tokyo and contribute to interactions with a diverse world.”
This year, the festival proposed the principles of “international exchange,” “nurturing talent for the industry’s future” and “the female perspective,” it said on its official Web site.
Meanwhile, Taiwan-based Malaysian film director Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) was honored with an award on Sunday from the Academy of the Performing Arts in Prague, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Prague said.
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
Taiwan’s coffee community has launched a “one-person-one-e-mail” campaign, calling for people to send a protest-e-mail to the World Coffee Championships (WCC) urging it to redesignate Taiwanese competitors as from “Taiwan,” rather than “Chinese Taipei.” The call followed sudden action last week after the WCC changed all references to Taiwanese competitors from “Taiwan” to “Chinese Taipei,” including recent World Latte Art champion Bala (林紹興), who won the World Latte Art Championship in San Diego earlier this month. When Bala received the trophy, he was referred to as representing Taiwan, as well as in the announcement on the WCC’s Web site, until it
RSS