Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

A former aboringinal boxer tries to get back on the field after disimprisonment.

Some celebrate Youth Day like Ghost Festival, Others mistake Labor Day for Restoration Day, Father’s Day becomes Children’s Day, And Halloween feels like Valentine’s Day. But what about Valentine’s Day? On this Valentine's Day, In a rural police station, Two officers and three criminals Engage in a debate on love, Unraveling the absurdity behind crimes of passion, fraud, And the trade of lust or love.

In Monster Fruit Academy, Granny Fruity, the live-action star of Fruity Pie, a children’s television show broadcasting for over 22 years, has been transformed into an animated character. Filled with monster power and Taiwanese fruit elements, a new fantasy adventure has now begun.On a secluded and evergreen path, there is a grandmother with grey hair who enjoys the fragrant forest. While she is concentrating on the map in her hand, a white deer statue in front of her suddenly bites off her map, leading her into a world of monsters…

Against the backdrop of Taiwan's turbulent presidential elections in 2004, TIGERWOMEN GROW WINGS portrays three women of different generations. Noted opera singer Hsieh Yueh-hsia, internationally renowned writer Li Ang, and 23-year-old film director Chen Yin-jung are featured in this documentary, which focuses on the changes taking place in the lives of women in Taiwan's youthful democracy.

Taiwan has 20 million inhabitants, and 12,5 million motorbikes. My 747 is the directors personal story, about his motorbike and their life together over the last eight years.

A patriotic heroine must expose and stop a prince's plot for rebellion.

A social media influencer's inability to draw a line between personal and public, has unexpectedly shocking consequences.

7-year-old girl Ting-Ting is nearsighted, but she doesn't want to wear the glasses. Because she finds that her young and capricious mother, also a streamer she followed, pays attention on her only when she needs to apply eye drops.

Face in Motion depicts Chang Chao-Tang from the shoulders up, dressed in a light tank top, shaking his head and contorting his face. The background is pitch black, and he is lit with an almost otherworldly glow. The artist recorded at two frames per second, rather than the typical twenty-four, speeding up the erratic movement. He occasionally flips upside down or appears in blue and green colourised layers on top of the colourless original. A high-intensity electronic track, ‘Pulstar’, by the Greek musician Vangelis, accompanies the video and accentuates its volatile energy.

A pair of vicious killers stalks an acrobatic troop until confronted by the skills of Chi Bun.

U, a deliverbot, always feels herself a defective robot. So she goes often to the Chiropractor for spinal manipulation treatment, wanting to be perfect as others. However, she changes her mind when she met the weird but unique video editor, Lin Min.

A star of the Taiwanese student movement, a celebrity Chinese student who loves Taiwan, and a Taiwanese documentary filmmaker passionate about politics. Each of them shared dreams of rebellion and building a better country. In the wake of the biggest social movement in Taiwan in recent years, they reflect on how close they came to realising their goals, how they were let down, and whether it is still possible to continue fighting for ideals.

A little boy trying to beat a monster. A baseball team captain trying to win a game. Perhaps ...they're the same thing.

Don, in his adolescence, feels low-esteem due to his awkward walking posture. The problem now is his father, who is coming home after years of far-sea fishing. His father always makes him feel uncomfortable. However, he’s not aware that his father is facing the same dilemma.

Feng-Lou lives with her brother Kun-Jie in a tiny home. Facing the danger of being separated from her, Feng-Lou hides her daughter Ah Xi. One day, Ah Xi saves a black butterfly that flew into the house and Kun-Jie suddenly dies in the attic.

Two circus performers are tasked with escorting relief in the form of gold bullion to a region hit by drought. On the way they are beset by countless bandits.

A story of a Taiwanese man who wants to film a special porn called Plan A.

An adult who has a mental age of child. An eccentric middle-aged man wearing a raincoat at the height of summer. In an ordinary morning in Taipei, a group of anonymous people and TV set unexpectedly stage a preposterous breakfast show.

Taiwan Wuxia Action Film.

Sick and tired of oppression and torture a mute fighter takes the law in to his own hands and single-handedly terminates all the Japanese invaders in his area.

Are we destined to make the same mistakes in life? Is my teacher attracted to me? Is this more than just a one-night stand? Will my family forgive me? What does the future hold? For these lost souls around the world questioning their paths in life, there are a multitude of answers.

"A young boy and his sister, whose parents were kidnapped, and have been raised by their Grand Parents, decide that they are going to rescue their parents and free them for the evil Chin Chun Ping and his Villain Swordswoman Knight Wang. What follows is a journey into booby traps, sinister monsters, thrills, spills, and chills. And a gigantic three headed firebreathing terrifying flying dragon which relentlessly pursues the Karate kids." - English DVD description. This is not The Magic World of Watari, though both were released in the same year.

Directed by artist and filmmaker Tiffany Sia, The Sojourn (2023) imagines a restless landscape film in Taiwan. Visiting scenic locations shot by King Hu, the short experiments with the road movie genre and its intersection with the martial arts epic. Sia meets actor Shih Chun, who played the protagonist in Hu’s Dragon Inn, Touch of Zen and other wuxia films, as he guides the quest to re-encounter the iconic landscapes where Dragon Inn was shot. He advises on the perfect conditions of mist and weather. Yet, in the journey through the mountains of Hehuanshan, the sublime landscape of King Hu remains ever elusive. She later visits the elementary school of Indigenous filmmaker and principal Pilin Yapu of the Atayal tribe. Absent of conventional subtitles, the essay film employs text burned into the center of the frame as a mode of translation, sometimes refusing total disclosure. – tiffanysia.com/glossary/the-sojourn

A masked fighter kills members of the Dragon clan who were practicing a rare form of martial arts in the monastery and took the secret manual now hunt is on to retrieve the manual and bring the killer to justice.

In 1969, Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Despite all the conspiracy theories around it, The US successfully showed the world what a powerful country can accomplish. 50 years later, people in Taiwan are struggling between an identity crisis and economic fluctuations, hoping for something or someone that would save the day. This desire is why you are hired to be a national hero – the very first Taiwanese who lands on the moon.

The Jade Lantern Festival comes from a very old legend that commemorates the exploits of bandits.

Horror from Taiwan.

The Salt Paddy Girls, a Mandarin-language color film released in 1968, was the work of renowned director Guo Nanhong, starring AI Li and Wei Su. The film's motivation may have been influenced by the wholesome and realistic film Oyster Girl produced by the Central Motion Pictures Company, which was a combination of the local scenery of Taiwan and a wholesome and positive story. Therefore, the location of Salt Lady was shot in the Anshun Salt Farm in Tainan, and the plot depicts the love of a female worker in the salt farm and the mystery of her life, which includes love entanglements as well as warmth and affection.

In February 2012, the death of Feng Fei Fei, the Taiwanese singing stardom in the 60s, shocked the whole island. People were occupied in a haze of mourning. At the same time, a single mother and her daughter got news from their husband and father, who had cut contact with them for 18 years and now wanted to meet them.

Midi Z visits his oncle who works as a jade miner.

Among the tall buildings of the city, the lonely security guard David hides a beautiful field that no one knows, and meets an egret there; but the expansion of the city never stops. One day, the field is destroyed, the egret disappears without a trace, and David begins to see mysterious illusions…

In the mist room, in the dim light, the steaming heat is floating and overflowing. The flickering male bodies, sucking each other's desire and loneliness, the more squeezed, the thirsty. You seem to have entered the forbidden area by mistake in formal attire, falling between dream and waking, staring, and being stared at. You can't remember how you came here or how to get out. Theater and video director Zhou Dongyan once again touched the life experience of gay men’s community culture that is hard to articulate but difficult to cut. This time, he moved the poetic lens language into VR, taking you and me to the male sauna, peeling off the layered desires, and exploring the hidden love in some kind of lovelessness.

Taiwanese romantic comedy film.

A man haunted by his sister's childhood death returns home after 40 years. Consumed by guilt, he loses grip on reality, unable to tell the living from the dead, ultimately trapped forever in his childhood nightmare.

A mix-up in hotel rooms leads one young man into lots of trouble. And he's in danger of losing his girl too.

The story is centered around the transgender protagonist Tzu-chi who has left home for six years and her sister Tzu-chuan with whom she has fallen out of touch for years. From reencountering each other with Tzu-chuan unable to recognize Tzu-chi, to the emotional nuances triggered by the subsequent recognition, the story profiles the protagonist’s gender identity, the contempt and even discrimination she faces from her work and social environment, and conflicts with her family. In the story, the protagonist goes through a series of unfortunate incidents with her sister. Long-repressed emotions and pressures finally pop the cap off, but this also becomes an opportunity for Tzu-chuan to resolve her inner conflicts. This film presents the theme “one can only truly move forward in life by newly confronting the obstacles they did not overcome in the past.”

Using Malaysia’s national flower, the big red flower (the red hibiscus), alongside non-native plants in Taiwan as characters, this collage illustrates the experience of Malaysian Chinese living in Taiwan. Trapped between dual identities and the language of others, they search for self-definition and a sense of belonging. Through the perspective of plants, the work reflects personal life experiences, with the hope of breaking down the boundaries between individual, national, and identity definitions.

Born never to cry, Fish seeks his missing mother through the underworld. He believes her ghost is imprisoned within a deity puppet — yet, it conceals neither his mother nor an informant, but a survivor. Through the puppet’s mouth, the seaside street’s buried past unfolds.

In this era, robotic peo- ple making humanized machine, is it a hopeless tragedy, or the beginning of a brave new world?

On a small island, the indigenous Da’o people live in harmony with the Pacific. Their love for the sea prompts 19-year-old Vongnyan to enlist in the navy. Returning broken, he confides his traumas to the waves during bouts of insomnia. His younger brother, Bo, plays and lives in the water, completely carefree, yet he, too, will soon have to choose his future.

Hanzi is a documentary exploring international design, visual culture, and identity through the lens of modern Chinese typography. The film covers a variety of topics such as how languages shape identity, and what role handwriting plays in the digital age.

Based on a true story, "Faithball" is a funny, inspiring and heartwarming tale surrounding a group of misfit kids who - along with their well-meaning but flawed baseball coach - start out trying to save their baseball team, but in the end overcome insurmountable obstacles and achieve enormous success for themselves and their community.

A woman who is restless in the house either lacks sexual love or true love. Even a good woman can climb a wall, depending on whether you are willing to climb it or not

In dreams, a mother is reunited with her deceased daughter. The daughter takes her mother by the hand, and leads her through darkness, to the edge of light. As they embrace, a new hope emerges, weaved together by a love that can’t be stopped, and a bond that never fades.

“Later I realized that the sight of stare had a temperature.” This story is about a teenager, her name is Chen An, who has been living with her mother in every random place. But this time they moved to a “Miss” penthouse suite. This was not very acceptable to her and she kept wondering what is it about like at school.

How small and powerless the Doudou family is in the face of disease. The doctor explained to Doudou’s parents that Tzu Chi is the largest bone marrow stem cell center in the country and can do bone marrow matching between non-relatives. Once the pairing is successful, the chance of healing is high. Through the efforts of the Tzu Chi bone marrow care team, a miracle finally appeared. Doudou Dou finally regained his health and started a new life.

If we lived in the world of cinema, could flowers blossom without withering?

Hero! Hito! tells the true story of Chinese Taipei, the team that represents Taiwan in international baseball competitions, and their eleven-year climb from the heartbreak of the 2013 World Baseball Classic to a world championship win. With powerful tournament footage and candid player interviews, the film shows how an underestimated team overcame doubts, pressure, and tough odds to defeat Japan and unite fans in a moment of unforgettable pride. A heartfelt and uplifting documentary from director Lungnan Isak Fangas.