Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

"Paradoxical" is an independent science fiction film from the makers of international documentaries "Design & Thinking," "Maker" and "Hanzi."

A witch unleashes an army of killer cats on a village for burying her alive.

Taiwanese horror comedy.

Ching Wei is on a trip with the rest of his class. Awkward and ungainly, he's the class clown who entertains his fellow students with his goofiness, and his only real friend is Ling, his partner in the show the class is putting on. But he's also in a secret relationship with one of the most popular girls in the class, Yu, though they pretend they don't hang out. But when the class puts the students near one another, dynamics begin to shift between everyone. Ching Wei wants to make his romance with Yu public. But the struggle to do so may also reveal the limitations of their affection.

Jing, a woman living in Taiwan, visits Japan after receiving a letter from Kasumi, who once had an affair with her father. As she spends time with the now-ill Kasumi, their quiet conversations lead her to confront her father's hidden emotions—and her own long-buried loneliness.

A couple has been happily married for years. One night, the husband confesses to his wife that he is gay. However, they decide to stick together and live together even after getting divorced. Once after drinking at a night club, they both get lucky. But fate has a final trick up the sleeve. Different relationships in one bed. It is as hilarious as it gets.

Obeying the wishes of his mother, a young sojourner heads out to Amsterdam to work for his cousin. Against his better judgment, he joins his cousin in the drug-trade.

Big Madam poisons her husband and throws her adopted sister into a snake pit where she has sex with the snakes and gives birth to the beautiful Snake Girl. When her son falls in love with Snake Girl, Big Madam tries to kill her.

They sacrificed their lives fighting for the independence of their country, but their stories remain untold for 60 years. The story begins with a man’s portrait, which has been hanging for more than 30 years in an old wooden house where I was born and grew up in Perak, Malaysia. It’s long become a taboo that my families do not talk about this man, not even to bring up his name or his past. Eventually I found out he is my grandfather, who sacrificed his life fighting for Malaysia’s independence and decolonisation, but his and his comrades’ stories are excluded from history. This documentary set out to unveil the mysteries.

Elementary school teacher Xuan-ying is paid a visit by Yue-jie, a student of hers from 12 years ago. During the three hours they spend together in the classroom, Xuan-ying slowly steps away from her former disaffection with the world and once again witnesses what it means to be alive.

Emma is unmarried and needs someone to be her unborn child’s legal father. Her friends, Abel and Romeo, set the “perfect” trap for a middle-aged man, which fails. They decide to run away to Thailand, but they need to tie up some loose ends before their big escape...

Adapted from the short story "Shopping Cart" by writer LIN Xiuhe. The 31-year-old Tong and her partner return to the place where they met in college, passing through Wufu Road, where she was born and grew up, and recalling the hidden period of history in her life.

The Chinese police visit head-teacher Chen at home. Her daughter, a dissident filmmaker living in Hong Kong, plans yet another critical film about China's colonization of the small autonomous territory. The authorities demand that Chen travel to her daughter to stop the film project. What they do not take into account is that Chen and her daughter lost contact long ago.

An older man and a teenager meet while wandering across the street from a gay wedding party; it's the big day for the older man's son and the teenager's father. As they meet for the first time, do they want to give their blessings to their families?

One day after watching a film festival movie, I (the author) said to Chin-Chieh: "If there's nothing serious, I would like to watch another movie." That's when I realized I was classifying "go home" as a big event. February 23, 2023, I walked home on that day. On the way home, I noticed that it became quite ceremonial. The night scenes along the road, the memories of traveling with family, and the "failed" Super 8 images produced at home, all turned into the scenery of memories. At the same time, I also realize that when I am in the space of my home, I impose constraints on myself.

An impossible kiss in an era when physical contact is strictly forbidden.

Taste of Wild Tomato begins with the history of Kaohsiung, which was an important military base for the Japanese army during the Japanese occupation, and tends to the deep scars of the survivors, their descendants, and their descendants’ descendants.

At the end of WWII, the Nationalist party of Republic of China, also known as the Kuomintang (KMT), took control of Taiwan and imposed martial law for 38 years. This period is known as the White Terror, where anyone suspected go being a Communist agent was hunted down. Through a 7-year-old girl’s point of view, The Black Kite brings us back to the innocent, yet high-handed time of the 1960s Taiwan.

Charged with violation of the Water Act, the indigenous community living under the San-ying Bridge was forced to witness their shelters and homes being torn down by the government every year, while the sand and gravel processing plant on the east bank grew larger and larger; the garbage mountain on the west bank higher and higher. This absurd cycle became so familiar that the children of the community began to build and demolish make-believe houses as a game.

Since his wife Mei-yun was left comatose after nearly drowning, CHEN You-ming has been raising his three sons alone in their seaside village. And since the mechanical digger he drives broke down, Chen has had more time on his hands than he likes. His life is suddenly disrupted by the appearance of a disturbed young woman who calls herself XIE Hui-zhen (“Zhen” for short) and says that Chen is her father. To uncover the facts behind Zhen’s wild claim, CHEN has to contact his old girlfriend KE Li-jia, last seen twenty years ago. Before the truth about Zhen’s inner turmoil emerges, CHEN has to deal with the death of his wife in hospital and the stresses in his relationships with his sons Wei, Ting and Liang.

Teymu has been lying in bed for a long time because of illness, looked after by a Vietnamese caretaker. One day, his daughter returns and wakes him up. It turns out his children are arguing over his land. A monkey appears and leads him on a spiritual journey.

One is free to express emotions, while the other is accustomed to a closed-off life. Yet, de- spite their extremely different personalities, Xuan and Anne share a common identity in the world̶about a sense of alienation, a kind of loneliness.

An adaptation of Xuan Xiaofo’s novel of the same name

A young man learns about love in the nightmarkets of Taipei.

Shaw Legends Chi Kuan Chun (5 Masters of Shaolin, Men from the Monastery) and Lee I Min (Shaolin Temple, 7 Grandmaster) join forces to take on action maestro Tommy Lee (Hot, Cool and Viscous, Eagles Claw) in a marital arts masterpiece. Chi is the master of the Wing Chun Kung Fu, which has devastatingly close quarter combat techniques. The character played by Chi Kuan Chun is sent to look for a killer. The impulsive character played by Lee I Min is Lee is a student of the Buddha's Palm, a high level style from the Shaolin Temple. Mad that he wasn't chosen to go, he somehow finds himself on the same quest as Chi. Nonstop fights and comedy ensue with Lee I Min playing jokes on Kuan Chun and competing with him to achieve their goal. It all leads up to a fantastic team up in they end as together they face the insidious character played by Tommy Lee.

In the 1980s, Taiwanese families arrived in Argentina; years later, many who felt Argentinean ended up in Taiwan. Parents leaving, their children returning; identities and memories divided, worlds we build to find each other.

A good, atmospheric, turn-of-the-century horror story with ghosts, vampires, and an impossible love triangle.

Each bookstore forms its own poetic landscape: gentle hands restoring old books, a bookstore owner guiding customers on herbal hikes, an eco-activist protecting mountains through reading, and a woman from a fishing community preserving local memories. Director Hou Chi-jan captures these intimate narratives through lyrical imagery, portraying 15 independent Taiwanese bookstores and preserving fading stories and quiet cultural resilience.

In the tradition of Bruce Lee's THE CHINESE CONNECTION and FISTS OF FURY comes this scenic, blood-flecked clash of cultures. Like Bruce, the hero has even given his ma a promise not to fight! But that vow is forgotten when a quaint coastal Taiwanese town is terrorized by Japanese sadist and their insidious collaborators. Then our temple-trained champion uses his Shaolin long-armed style to break bones and take names...not necessarily in that order. Many a samurai sword swinging killer with Hitler mustaches are dispatched under his fingers and feet of fury but when he must face a tiger clawing traitor for the soul of the village and heart of the girl he loves all bets are off.

A printmaker, who was killed in the 228 Incident, falls into an unknown square space, in which he imagines the life he should have had…

A Taiwanese production that was directed by Lee Tso-Nam and starring Chen Kuan-tai and Don Wong Tao.

After Singapore must demilitarize its bases in Taiwan, a young Singaporean man and his lover must part ways. They spend an entire night together wandering aimlessly hoping to come closer to understanding their future. With only hours left, the bond that renders their connection to each other palpable is severed.

Led by acclaimed actors David WANG Yao-qing, a beloved uncle figure in Taiwan, and Sally CHEN So-li, a cherished grandmotherly figure, the film invites audiences into a closely observed portrait of Taiwan’s urban realities—revealing the challenges of an aging society and the pressures faced by migrant workers, while offering a deeply humane and socially attentive look at another, often unseen side of Taiwanese life.

After graduation from colleague, Jing must pack all stuff in the dormitory before her parents coming to drive her home.Her boyfriend Kevin try to help her clean the room but only mess it up.They get quarrel before separation, even have no time to say goodbye.

Zhi cheng unexpectedly joined a racing group through a colleague when he worked at a Stir-fries restaurant . After receiving his first payment, Zhi cheng decided to use the money he earned to take his younger brother, Zhi wei, away from their old home, in order to escape their father's long-standing alcohol-fueled violence. Both of them felt hopeful about their new life, but during the process of being involved in crime and evading domestic violence, their relationship as brothers also underwent some changes.

To the people of Paiwan, one of Taiwan's indigenous tribes, Shamanism is an important part of their culture. However, a decline in the number of shamans has raised concerns that this old tradition is dying. Two childhood friends of the Paiwan tribe return to where they grew up and start a shamanism school, hoping to pass on the rituals to a new generation. But in order to train new shamans, they will have to convince the old ones first.

A Taiwanese language film

She returns from overseas to see her critically ill father for the last time. In the quarantine hotel, her isolated life is like being stranded on a deserted island, intertwined with memories of her father from childhood. She sets fire to the room, but the memories can never be cut off.

A drifting soul is searching for meaning and connection after leaving home.

Ah-Kuan, a teenager who grew up in a single-parent family, could not find warmth in his family, so he turned to friendship and love for solace. However, for the sake of friendship, he was caught in a dangerous storm and almost lost his life in the storm. It was also because of this storm that Ah-Kuan had the opportunity to go up the mountain, where he met an old Zen master and two young monks in a dilapidated temple.

Two sisters live in a second-hand store where drug parties are common. Chun finds solace by hiding herself in an old fridge, while Chieh appears indifferent. After a quiet murder is almost carried out on a summer afternoon, Chun realizes her seemingly amiable uncle is a perpetrator, plunging her into an emotional abyss.

The two young people who met on the Internet tried repeatedly to end each other's lives. But eventually, they couldn't kill their deep desire to live.

In that summer, mom is admjavascript:window.document.synopsis.submit()itted to the hospital again. Ling was at a loss at home with the reappearance of her birth mom as well as the sudden change of jealous attitude from her elder sister Ching. How should they encounter the forth coming death? It turns out that something as natural as breathing needs practice as well.

The Pumpkin of Nyefar is a short directed by Tod Polson and Mark Oftedal. The story was co-written by Maurice Noble, who began his animation career at Disney in the 1930s, and eventually designed many of Chuck Jones’s classic Warner Bros. cartoons including Duck Dodgers in the 24th Century and What’s Opera, Doc?. The film is narrated by June Foray (the voice of Rocky in Rocky and Bullwinkle).

Journey to Kwan Shan. A Taiwan-HK film by CMPC.

Tshiu-Bi and her husband Siu-Gi have a seemingly perfect marriage but still have no children. When Tsiu-Bi's friend, Le-Hun, a single mother, is forced to work in a nightclub to raise her son, Tshiu-Bi tries her best to help her. However, unbeknownst to Tshiu-Bi, Le-Hun and SiuGi were once lovers. To avoid complications, Le-Hun decides to move away, only to run into Siu-Gi again in a nightclub. After a night together, Le-Hun becomes pregnant. When Tshiu-Bi learns this startling truth, she makes a surprising decision.

Hao-Yang is a young man that loves the sea and loves to surf, but just as his life was about to begin, he was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease that was from his father. After some time, his body will begin to paralyze part by part, not able to move or speak and eventually he will die. His brother refused to take the test and their single-parent mother still tries to find a cure for her boys. One day, Hao-Yang told his brother he wanted to see the ocean and begged his brother to take him surfing again. When Hao-Yang had finally fulfilled his wish and got on the surfboard, he disappeared in the ocean after a big wave.

Growing up in an ordinary family, Ah-Hui inherited his father's profession and became a postman. However, he gradually realized that this was not what he wanted, but due to his personality and the family atmosphere, he found it difficult to talk to his family about it. One rainy night, Ah-Hui had an accident, and three souls detached from his body. Each soul had its own consciousness, but only one of them wanted to wake up. Meanwhile, the other two souls, existing in different spaces, discovered the regrets they had in their past lives. Unsure if they could make amends, their thoughts gradually began to change.

Hsu Feng plays Shu Mei, the female assassin engaged to Ling Tien-yu, a swordsman played by Tien Peng. As they are fighting against the Mongolian army that is invading China, Shu Mei takes up a suicidal mission to assassinate the Mongolian chieftain. Again, Hsu Feng appears as a brave swordswoman in the film. In the beginning, she sacrifices her love life and then dressed in white, she fights with dual blades, chains and bare hands against the enemy. Hsu Feng not only shows great fighting skills but brings the character vividly to life. It is not surprising that she won Best Leading Actress at the 1976 Golden Horse Awards. Moreover, the impressive face-changing trick is seen in the film.

A Dutch photographer (played by David Verbeek himself – also a talented photographer in real life) takes a picture of a girl in a parking lot in nighttime Taipei as she plays with her kite. The photo transports us into her life. She is eight years old and is about to lose her best friend, a boy from a wealthy family who is moving to America. Back in the Netherlands, the photographer is confronted with his own constant loneliness. The photo of the girl evokes memories of his own childhood, when he still felt at home somewhere.