Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

Mischievous female ghost pesters a "country bumpkin" in the big city.

After the cession of Taiwan to Japan in 1895 by the Manchu government, people on the island staged a series of anti-Japanese revolts to oppose the tyrannical rule of the Japanese militarists.

"Loves of a Small Town Doctor" is a film directed by Ming-Cheng Chiu. It was released in 1986. The film tells that the town doctor secretly liked the new nurse at home. One morning, the doctor disappeared for no reason. Everyone panics, this kind of thing never happened. The fact is that early in the morning, still not bright, doctor carrying his camera, and took an early bus to the sea. The doctor returned to the clinic the next morning. No one could see the meaning of the doctor's departure. Only doctor himself understood it.

Zatoichi goes to Taiwan to fight the Chinese.

Lanyu - Orchid Island, is a small tropical island where its aboriginals take preys on the flying fish, a symbol of bliss and abundance, to make their living. Three young men Behong, Jeddah and Qingkuang known on the island as the "Three Musketeers" for their life long friendship and strong bond are enjoying their little piece of tranquility.One summer day, a beautiful young woman named Zing arrives in this small island from Taipei. She is on a business trip to survey remote regions for cellular coverage and will inadvertently change the Three Musketeers lives and hers as well…

Two ladies of the sword are transporting a valuable Dragon Pearl and everyone else wants it. They’re assisted by two heroes, one of whom is somewhat less heroic and more of a rascal, although both demonstrate strong fighting skills.

A-Tsui, the owner of an old grocery store, is always bored with the dull life with his wife. One day, A-Tsui happens to make a call for a prostitute. He seems to be a little clumsy in the city with the young prostitute before they get caught by the prostitute’s boyfriend.

A magician/official has to solve a murder. He finds the case too unclear, so he goes to Hades to find the truth in Hades' "records file".

A clever and lively girl who gets lost in the world of radio drama believes the woman playing mahjong is not her mother, and runs away from home to search for her imaginary mother. A scoundrel claims to be the girl’s father to escape from police. They encounter two women in the mountains: one is tortured by his workaholic husband who engages madly in his scientific research, the other is the pure and naïve girl living in the mountains. Typhoon is coming. They are trapped in a weather station by the heavy rain with their heart and mind overwhelmed by emotions like the rainstorm outside. The film daringly deals with the near infidelity of a middle-aged housewife, a subject at that time both unusual and controversial.

Two beautiful young girls who were raised in an orphanage join hands, arms and everything else to fight the bureaucracy's intent to close down their beloved orphanage.

Willy Fog is again challenged by Sullivan and embark, with his friends, in search of a secret path to the center of the Earth, dodging powerful streams and strange animals.

Poetry, literature, painting and old film clips converge in this lyrical, unusually designed film essay about Le Moulin, the Taiwanese poets’ collective which protested in the 1930s against the cultural superiority of the Japanese occupier and the domination of realism in poetry.

When a military contingent of "mythic" Americans arrive for war games in a little farming village in South Taiwan in the late 1960s, a veritable flood of hilarious cultural and linguistic misunderstandings is loosed on both sides.

As Meng, master of Patience School prepares to announce his successor, a rival swordsman named Dare Devil kills him. Although their skills are no match, the school’s students vow to get revenge.

A detective seeks redemption after taking on an assignment involving the death of a girl.

A warrior from the underworld and his assistant enter the human realm to try and destroy the fox spirit that has been terrorizing their tribe. After the warrior gets injured and loses his sword the kindly village doctor and his daughter take him in. Then bad things start happening to the village - livestock killed, babies snatched, people murdered. The villagers are suspicious of the stranger. He needs to find his sword and kill the fox to rid two worlds of its evil.

Chan Jun-Leung's 1982 film based on The Journey to the West.

Taiwanese horror movie from 1975.

Taiwanese horror movie from 1984.

A prince wants to marry a common girl, but is forbidden from doing so. When the girl's parents are brutally murdered, she's taken in by the Silver Fox, and taught the ways of killer kung-fu techniques, which she masters completely. When she finds out that the prince's life is now threatened by the same warlord who killed her parents, it's time to take revenge.

Taiwan movie

Is love nothing but an illusion mix of memories and imagination? A boy meets a girl on Green Lake, a famous dating spot in Taipei. Mesmerized by the beauty of the girl, the boy spares no effort in getting closer to her. When the boy finally gets a moment alone with the girl on a rowboat, it become evident that, despite the obvious chemistry among the couple, the most unforgettable moments are better left unspoken. As the story comes to an end, what really happened on that beautiful summer day remains mysterious.

Taiwanese horror film. A ghost walking along the roadside trails a movie star home and causes various problems for her both on and off set.

An incident brings a mid-aged Taiwanese woman and a young Filipino guy together. Although they can barely communicate with each other in language, she takes care of him out of instinct before her self-consciousness gets in the way to define what that ambiguous instinct is.

Taiwanese horror film.

Two high school students, different from others in personality and experience, try to figure out how they want to show up in the world.

The Beloved Grass is a Taiwanese Romance starring Charlie Chin.

2012 Apocalypse is coming! Adam and Guy, two best friends lost at 30 years old, accidentally start a revolution on facebook, dressing up as Michael Jackson and calling people to join together as one in the name of Love. Unexpectedly, the mission spreads like wild fire and becomes a global phenomenon, so big that three "agents" kidnap Adam and take him to a spooky parallel universe. Secret Service? Aliens? These "agents" offer Adam the chance to escape out of Time and achieve immortality? Scam or reality, Adam is headed for an excellent adventure!

Roc Tien plays a top swordsman, who goes after a league of professional assassins and kung fu masters who are trying to upset the balance in the martial world.

Taiwanese movie

At its narrative heart is a ‘neo-noir’ thriller: a genre exploring the darker aspects of the modern world. A young woman on the margins of society is desperate enough to sell her own blood. But when her rare blood type is sought after for a high-level political figure, a game of cat and mouse ensues between her, the buyer, and the black market forces that would happily kill the girl for her valuable lifeblood.

Crime film from Taiwan

The period musical shot in 1970 and original titled "四季花開", was banned by Taiwan after someone reported it was based on a mainland China film. The film was later re-titled and changed all the signing lyrics to be allowed to be screened in Taiwan once.

If even one child becomes better because of my persistence, then all my efforts are worthwhile! This film deeply portrays every little detail and hardships of the teaching profession. It’s not just a story about one teacher but a mirror reflecting the dedication and perseverance of every teacher. We hope that through this film, we can pay the highest respect to all teachers silently working in education, sparking greater awareness and respect for education and teachers, and together, rekindling the passion and dignity of teachers before it’s too late.

High school student Li Chih-hui worships martial arts movie star “Long” and dreams of becoming a kung fu master so he can defend himself from bullies. When classmate Chien Li-hua shows concern for the bullied Chih-hui, he begins to develop feelings for her. And when he finds out Li-hua is into divination and wants to become a spirit medium, Chih-hui pens a script entitled “Long and the Magic Princess” and invites her to star in it, but the bullies show up and knock Chih-hui unconscious. When he wakes up, however, Chih-hui suddenly declares that Long’s spirit now possesses his body.

Little Scissors, a little young girl always dreaming of becoming a space hero. Today is her first day of preschool. Surprisingly, she met the alien attack. Will she fight with them bravely? An incredible and fantasy story is keep going!

OUR HAPPY BIRTH DAY follows the stories of two expectant mothers - Daisy and Anais. This film shows how they speak for women’s autonomy in giving birth, striving to call attentions of all parties － from pregnant women to their families, the medical system, government to the whole nation － to think over the relation between childbirth and life.

An irresponsible young couple got a possessed doll by accident, the doll quickly turns into an extremely high maintenance baby overnight, the couple must learn to care for this newly born before it wreaks havoc on their lives.

One rainy afternoon, the sound of a vendor calling out "Fix your screen windows, screen doors - Install new glass!" summoned this daydream. I traveled with the repairman to Toad Mountain in search of the maiden he so vividly described. But the houses here had long crumbled into ruin.

Rich man Xu Huitang got close to his special nurse Fang Feili, which caused a misunderstanding with his wife and left for the United States with their daughter.

Lush jungle and a building in ruins are the ideal stage for a film-confession that defies storytelling and goes beyond conversation on cinema. Tsai Ming-Liang and his actor Lee Kang-sheng confess and put on stage a pièce in which attention and slowness are in tune with the rhythm of memory. The unveiling of Tsai Ming-liang’s filmmaking: from Stray Dogs to the most intimate notes of the director-actor relationship.

Tells the story of "Bao sheng da di"--A marvelous man who wanted to become a doctor so that he could save his mother's life.

A-Tek is on a quest to find his favorite metal band, Chthonic, and persuade them to play a benefit protest concert in his southern Taiwan hometown. Can music save a Taiwanese homeowner from a Chinese land grab? He sure hopes so.

The love bug strikes two young sisters at about the same time. Since the two sisters happen to be in love with the same person, chaos and confusion is brought into their once serene home.

On a winter evening in 1979, the arrest of anti-government protesters is underway. The city is under curfew, but a teenage student, out of curiosity, follows a mysterious young man from a riverside path into an abandoned hut. Living in Taiwan under martial law, are men constantly escaping from government, society, or the affection buried in their hearts?