Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

Hokkien language cinema. As a child Yuchun was betrothed to Sanliu, who has physical and mental disabilities. Both of Dongshan's parents died, and he grew up with Yuchun and Sanliu. With help, Dongshan left his hometown and went to Keelung to complete his studies. After graduation he is offered a job, but decides to return to take care of the family. Soon their uncle dies, and Yunchun collects her courage to show her feelings to Dongshan - she is hopin the two would go far away. But Dongshan thinks this would be cruel to Sanliu....

A massive gold forture is hidden somewhere in the hills surrounding Hong Kong, and 12 kung fu masters are in pursuit of the loot. Through a series of head-to-head confrontations, the pool of treasure hunters dwindles until there's one left.

This film depicts the conflict between the West and Eastern culture, the Northern and Southern ways of life and the traditional and modern concepts. It consists of six stories.

Tsai Ming-liang designed this short film as a farewell to his friend Simon Field, who was about to leave his position as director of the Rotterdam Festival after eight years in office. The piece follows two dogs roaming the Tamshui River in Taipei, accompanied by the director's voice-over as he reads a written dedication for Field.

The main character of little girl in the story confronts a robbery and strays from the road she is familiar with. After passing a hedge, she enters an unknown world and unfolds a magical adventure depending on senses other than vision and her imagination. With soft and cute colors as the main key, we used simple designs to depict the little girls' imaginary world.

A family moves into a house. The handyman's son tells the brother and sister there is a family of vampires sealed up in the basement. After freeing and befriending the child vampire, he uses his vampire magic to take the daughter and the handyman's son into a comic book to save a princess from a cannibal witch doctor and tribe. The witch doctor (Wu Ma) changes into the monkey king and Dracula, among others. The kids counter with their own transformations. For instance, when the witch doctor changes into Jesus, the kids chase him with a crucifix. Meanwhile, in the real world, the vampire parents are hopping around trying to find their son.

Jie, a local gangster, wants to leave his hometown to become a singer in the big city therefore he has tackle the problems he tends to ignore in his life. However, one's dream doesn't always come true.

Taiwan movie

Growth is learning to live with trouble. Kai, a ten-year-old boy with irritable bowel syndrome, plans to send the love letter to his crush, Jenny on Moon Festival.

The film follows the last 4 years life of Grandma Hashima, the last existent from colonial Taiwan, who knows the secrets of "Green Jail," the notorious coal mine before World War II on Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan.

The disappearance of three teddy bears brings eight lonely hearts together. Tiring of serving people, Peter, a tour guide, brings Teddy Bears that are considered as families or pets to their owners to travel abroad. On his way to pick up a Teddy Bear, a car accident happens. All 3 Bears are missing. To stall for time and money, Peter needs to figure out how to continue this unusual trip right away...

That maritime accident marked the first encounter between Nawei, the son of a fisherman, and the mermaid girl, as well as his meeting with underwater photographer Dapai. To thank Dapai for saving him, Nawei, skilled in free diving, served as her maritime guide. The untouched underwater beauty left Dapai, who hailed from the city, spellbound; The ocean as seen through Dapai's eyes was a completely new perspective for Nawei, who had grown up on Lan Yu Island. They discovered a brand-new world through each other's eyes, and it also revealed to Nawei the future and business opportunities of free diving, giving him the opportunity to leave Lan Yu Island.

Cut & paste Taiwanese monster movie that uses footage from the Japanese film, Monster Prince.

Taiwanese horror movie from 1971.

A musical comedy developed from the usual poor-boy-loves-rich-girl situation.

A man recounts his sorrows over his love that was not meant to be. As China enters its tumultuous period of political upheaval, love begins to blossom for two people on opposing parties.

Romantic comedy.

This Film Centers On A Famous Sword, A Master Swordsman, And A Young Fighter Obsessed With A Personal Quest

Su Zhengde, a middle-aged policeman who has no hope of promotion, eavesdropped on insider news of professional baseball signing and gambling in his duty. He wanted to raise money to send his daughter to study abroad, and he struggled between love and morality. Ada, a fat little brother who lives opposite Zhengde's house, plays baseball in order to become the real man in his mother's mind, but his real dream is to be a dancer. In order to realize his dream, Ada goes hungry and saves money to participate in dance competitions, hiding from her fierce and strict mother. On this day, Zhengde hesitated whether to give up morality and go all out? Ada is still waiting for her mother to understand how he wants to dance! The dreams of two generations, the middle-aged Zhengde and the young Ada, are waiting for the opportunity on the sunny autumn afternoon...

Soft, an escaped undocumented worker, clutches a woman's ID card in his hand. This woman is the goddess of his best friend, Chai, who yearns to meet her. To fulfill Chai's desire, Soft embarks on a journey, heading toward the location indicated on the ID card.

A TV movie and part of groundbreaking Taiwan TV series “Eleven Women”

The winters in Northern China could become rather bitter and harsh especially if one must endure it alone. Hoping to spend his last winter in solitude, a timid man must declare his love for his sweetheart before her family forces her to be married off.

Ning was the center of the class but now she's in crisis because of a random prank. And her friendship with Yun is now at stake.

At twenty, A Wen, directionless and lacking skills, leaves home after an argument with his father, never expecting to return. Twelve years later, he comes back as a man with a criminal record. Fifteen-year-old Li Ming, a gifted student, is constantly bullied by local thugs because of his close friendship with Wang Yu-ting, the girlfriend of the gang leader. When A Wen saves him from the thugs, Li Ming asks him to be his bodyguard, hoping for protection from further bullying.

Over the decades, the Malayan Communist Party fought a guerrilla war in the jungle for independence. When a baby was born during the war, they sent it out of the jungle to ensure its survival. Boluomi is one of those babies.

An unexpected and joyous exploration of womanhood, autonomy and self-reinvention, told through the video diaries and personal archive of the free-spirited XiXi and the evolution of the friendship between her and the filmmaker.

Fantasy bleeds into reality when 16-year-old Lolo becomes entangled in a Freudian loop centered around a strawberry shortcake and her mother, Norma. As Lolo sinks deeper into this surreal loop, the boundary between reality and the dreamscape becomes increasingly blurred.

After retreating from battle, a band of Mongolian soldiers take refuge in a cemetery where they are slaughtered by reanimated zombies from the netherworld. But the leader is possessed by the Devil and he levels an assault against a nearby Chinese village. Local monks cover themselves with writings from the sacred scriptures in an attempt to stop the marauding warlord and his ddemon army.

Arranged by a smuggling syndicate, A-Hong and his young teen sister along with a group of Burmese youngsters sneak across the Myanmar/Thailand border and arrive in a remote town called Dagudi in Northern Thailand. A-Hong's sister is taken away by the gangs as her mother has sold her to them. A-Hong goes to Bangkok and works under a tour guide, a wildcatter from Myanmar who has lived in Thailand illegally for years.

Bun-de (Wen-de in Mandarin, played by Shi Jun/Shih Chun) is a shy young man. Aggressively courted by all the girls in the neighbourhood, he only has eyes for the pretty and mischievous Gui-kia (Jin Mei/Chin Mei). She finds every means possible to meet up with her boyfriend, although he is closely watched over by a very protective father, A-Gao. When the parents finally agree on the wedding, they realise that they used to be in love. Accusing each other of betrayal, they refuse to allow their children to marry. Bunde and Gui-kia decide to elope.

Two years post heart transplant, Ah Xun remains unable to shake off the gloom cast over his renewed life. First, there is a house fire; then, an unprecedented pandemic breaks out. Retreating to his grandfather’s home, Ah Xun finds himself persistently haunted by a string of unfortunate events. He is faced with an ex lover’s return, an encounter with the mixed-race sibling neighbours, the harrowing news of his mother’s cancer, his sister’s nervous breakdown, a friend’s drug issues, and now, the news of his grandfather testing positive for the new disease.

Taiwanese action flick.

An Autumn Diary, a winning modern romance which takes inspiration - and even some footage - from the classic An Autumn's Tale, which starred Chow Yun Fat and Cherie Chung! Wing is a young woman who has patterned her romantic ideals after an old diary she discovered fourteen years ago. Within the diary's pages is recounted a heartwarming romantic tale of a young woman, who finds love with an uncouth country hick who, deep down, is a true gentleman.

An in-depth documentary on the reclusive Taiwanese artist Huang Hua-Cheng and his avant-garde legacy. Commissioned by the Taipei Fine Arts Museum for the retrospective exhibition: “An Open Ending: Huang Hua-Cheng” (2020).

A boy brings many 10 dollar coins given by his father to pay the fee of his school camp campaign, but his teacher asks him to exchange all his coins into cashes, or he cannot attend the camp. This is a short film based on a child's aspect.

An arrogant young kung fu master engages in vigilantism in order to avenge the death of his master.

Taiwanese drama film.

Taiwan movie

A young martial artist battles three traitors to retrieve a list of Chinese citizens who are collaborating with the Japanese during their occupation of Manchuria.

Yearning to reunite with his father in Kaohsiung city, Manawei joins his elementary school’s dance troupe.

A Taiwanese film

Classic punch & block era baddie, Fong Yeh, directs the action and stars in this movie about a Thai boxer struggling to fend off local gangsters who want him to take a dive in a rigged match. Tensions arise when he refuses to submit and the gangsters draft in some heavy muscle in the form of Bolo Yeung to take care of things.

On the day Taiwan passes its same-sex marriage law, Wen-de’s daughter is at home, celebrating her new engagement to her girlfriend.

Tale of the Lost Boys is the story of the friendship between two men Alex, a Filipino mechanic, and Jerry, a Taiwanese aborigine student. The two meet randomly when Alex flees to Taipei from Manila, upon learning that his girlfriend is pregnant. A casual conversation develops into a surprising personal connection between them. Both realize that they yearn for a more intimate connection with their mothers, since Alex’s abandoned him for a new family while Jerry is afraid that his traditional parents will reject him for being gay. The two men go on a road trip and end up at Jerry’s tribe. The trip eventually makes them reconnect with their mothers and both discover a certain sense of identity and freedom.

A man goes to hell after driving his car off a bridge and returns to Earth as a vampire.

Che (Tseng Yi-che) returns to Nanfang’ao fishing port after taking the rap for younger bro Ren’s (Cheng Yu-jen) stabbing of the son of local mobster Shun (Hsu Ling-tsang). Ren is also back from hiding in Japan with their father, Chang (Michio Hayashida), who is due to return to settle a score with Shun.