Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

A couple of friends join the Taiwanese army to fight the Mainland Chinese. But life in the army isn't all that they dreamed off....

A woman resorts to prostitution out of hunger and commits suicide shortly after, leaving her daughter to embark on an equally cruel path.

The daughter of a wealthy man takes French lessons so she can go to France with her fiancée, but ends up falling for a poor man who studies civil engineering.

When Jade, a web-cam girl, visits Takeko's tattoo studio she becomes entranced with the image of the spider lily and with Takeko as well. In order to get closer to the object of her desire, Jade asks Takeko to give her the same lily tattoo, challenging Takeko's monastic existence and opening up memories which threaten to tear the two women apart.

Cop & robber story with a twist. A cop is trying to nail a bad guy (played by Dick Wei). This pisses the bad guy enough that he goes to the cop's house and kills both his wife and his daughter. When the cop gets there, he catches Dick Wei on his way out and ends up cornering him. Dick, who doesn't want to give the cop the satisfaction, jumps to his death. But the cop follows him into hell to make him pay.

An American travels to Bhutan searching for a valuable antique rifle and crosses paths with a young monk who wanders through the serene mountains, instructed by his teacher to make things right again.

A Taiwanese high school baseball team travels to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament.

A rebellious detective, distancing himself from his general father, teams up with a marginalized journalist to clear his father’s name after he’s framed for a brutal murder. As they investigate, they uncover a brutal truth hidden behind the era’s facade.

Taiwanese comedy film.

Mayday Life Tour is linked by four distinct segments and the story is unveiled in “Yesterday’s Rumbling Fun”.

The story follows a young man as he changes from an intelligently aware youth, to a teenager with much less confidence than he once had, and finally, to a stable adult.

Those rascally Shaolin monks are at it again, and this time they're tracking down some vitriolic villains who have heisted a sacred book. Throw in an evil prince, a flying guillotine, and manic martial hijinks, and you've got a potent mix for action.

An attractive and successful doctor places a personal ad in a newspaper to try to meet (and eventually marry) Mr. Right. A succession of blind dates ensues, featuring men who are lonely, desperate, dangerous and perverted.

Master puppeteer Li Tien-lu recalls his life in Japanese-occupied Taiwan during the first half of the 20th century.

Four love stories by four talented Taiwanese first-time directors – well-known lyrist, Vincent Fang Wenshan; TV host, Huang Zijiao; online novelist, Jiu BaDao; and commercial director, Chen Yixian.

A young man and his friend move to Taiwan, believing it to be a land of possibilities, but it's not long before they're accused of being spies.

Ah Fu (Wong Tao) and Chen Ting Kuan (Carter Wong) are a couple of kung fu men in the escort service business with top notch kung fu. Ah Fu gets tired of the escort service and quits to take up the life of a normal man. In his new “life”, Ah Fu runs into a thief named Li Chi (Li Kun), and the two become the best of friends. Life is great! Ah Fu gets married to a pretty girl, Yu Lan (Ha Ling Ling). He has money, servants, and foot massages. What else could you want? Ah Fu’s life gets turned upside down when a mantis fist expert named Nan Kung Ping (Lung Fei) shows up at Ah Fu’s doorsteps seeking to avenge the death of his brother.

After years toiling in bit-parts, an actress finally gets her break with a leading role in a spy thriller. The part is challenging, not least because it calls for explicit sex scenes, and the director is often hard on her. But both the industry and the press think the results are sensationally good.

A Japanese Prince proposes to the Shaolin abbot that a contest between Ching and Japanese martials arts should be held at the Shaolin Temple. However this is just a front for a more villainous plot to overthrow Shaolin and then China herself. Without doubt some of the best choreography to come out of the Orient and crack up as Japanese Bushido experts take on the very best of Shaolin kung fu

May, a woman singer from the mainland of China, suddenly loses her voice and has conflicts with Ah Lei, her producer and secret lover. In anger she goes to Old Town of Jingtong where she meets Xiao Mo, a warmhearted man. Xia Mo helps May find a place to stay, and finds her work at local restaurant. May finds happiness and consolation in the old streets of the small town, and her voice gets better and better.

In Japan today, there is a demand for "100 million people to become shareholders" due to the "20 million yen retirement problem" and the spread of NISA and iDeCo. It is no exaggeration to say that we live in an age where "billionaires" are born through cryptocurrencies and stocks, and that anyone has the chance to become a billionaire.

A ghost takes over a dancer's body in order to find those who killed her, and thus her revenge.

Mark, a rookie in a global marketing enterprise, is weary of his repetitive job and challenging workplace infightings. Exhausted by overtime hours, Mark even has an illusion of the Grim Reaper. One day, Mark’s colleague mistakes him for the grandson of the biggest shareholder of the company. Mark is promoted and assigned to go on a business trip with his assistant Emma, whom he forms a strong attachment with. Mark is willing to risk everything to maintain the lie. However, the company gets involved in an insider trading scandal. What will Mark do to tackle the crisis?

Ming General Cheng (Wang Dao) and his band of soldiers escape to Taiwan after Ching forces topple the Ming Dynasty. Still fearing the deposed general's deadly potential, however, the Ching prince Ta orders his own band of ruthless mercenaries to finish off Cheng and his warriors. The rivals prove to be equally skilled, and soon everybody is kung fu-fighting in this action-heavy martial arts spectacular.

With karma as the central theme, this intriguing movie is made up of three amazing stories. The first one tells about a fox fairy that a fox fairy that a fox sacrifices itself to save a hunter from being sucked by a vampire. The second tale depicts the surprising out come of the murder of a shop owner whose wife has an affair with his servant. In the third story, a doll fairy punishes a man for sexually abusing his wife by burying itself together with the man in a fire.

When April, a Filipino migrant worker, returns home with the ailing Taiwanese grandpa she cares for, while the grandpa's recently released son comes home only to find the house empty.

An orphan boy seeks revenge upon a villainous kung-fu sect that killed his friends. He chances upon two old kung fu masters who are fighting to determine who's the better fighter; one is a drunk, the other puffs constantly on a pipe. Fei Fei convinces them to teach him kung fu, and then he'll fight using both of their techniques and will discover which is superior. So Fei Fei ends up fighting his way up the ranks of the evil sect with the two old men trailing after him, evaluating the battles and counting how many of their individual moves Fei Fei uses. The final battle with the white-haired master of the sect, using new kung fu moves inspired by dancers in a brothel, is amazingly gymnastic. --Bret Fetzer

The “ultimate love” that aims at “tolerance” and “symbiosis” will be sublimated and ask questions to the chaotic society of today.

A-Guo and A-Dou are two teenagers living in an industrial town in Taiwan, who fight, loaf, and cause trouble all day and hang out with Jie, a young gangster. When Jie's gangland patron is gunned down, the trio set out to revenge the killing. As a result, the two teens are forced into hiding.

What happens when a costumed universal space hero is put out to pasture? Or, rather, the actor portraying him is?

Lawrence Lau directs Ballistic, a crime thriller that uses the turbulent world of Taiwanese politics to tell a riveting story of cops, corruption, and how righteousness still has value in this grey-shaded world.

College freshman Si-ying gets a part-time job at “Cafe. Waiting. Love” coffee shop, where she befriends Abusi, a tomboyish barista who can make any coffee the customers request, the beautiful and mysterious cafe owner, and Zeyu, the boy who always sits in the same spot in the cafe who seems to be very popular with girls and on whom Si-ying develops an instant crush.

Set at the edge of the Noto Peninsula in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan, with its beautiful scenic views, the film revolves around two women from different backgrounds who develop a friendship, and how they begin to influence and change each other’s lives.

Set in the then Portuguese colony of Macau, IMMORTAL STORY depicts the story of the love affair between a small time chanteuse and her Japanese beau. They met when both were young and pretty and again many years later when he had became a drug addict and she a fallen woman.

During the Ming Dynasty, as Japanese pirates wreak havoc along the Chinese coast, laying waste to entire towns, a band of ninjas start appearing and target the Chinese military commander, General Chi. The Master of the Three Arts (who possesses a book illustrating various ninja techniques) is the only one who can combat this new enemy, so he pledges that his students will join Chi's army in their fight to wipe out the killers.

Even in modern-day Taipei, women feel the societal pressure to get married and have children before the clock runs out. Thankfully, there is a solution: freeze your eggs and prolong your fertility until the right one comes along! Starring Ariel Lin, the film is a glimpse of what millions of working women struggle with: finding the balance between pursuing a career and marriage.

Two illegal immigrants meet a young kid and the three become best friends until one of them joins the Triads. Now the remaining two must fight the Triads in a battle to the death.

Putra, a 13-year-old boy living with asthma, dreams of one day playing for Indonesia’s national football team. Often underestimated, his determination never wavers until he fails a crucial selection, making his dream feel impossibly out of reach. Everything changes when he encounters Gaga, a mystical Garuda who offers him a new chance. Alongside Naya, a talented young footballer and the coach’s daughter who becomes his fiercest ally, Putra embarks on a journey filled with challenges, growth, and unexpected courage. Through it all, Putra comes to understand that chasing a dream takes more than grit and bravery. It takes belief, and the people who stand beside you. The question is: can he rise above his limits and become one of Indonesia’s finest?

After a devastating artillery attack on the island of Kinmen, commander Chi Liang-chen and his battery prepare a counter-attack.

Superstar Carter Wong must protect the Shaolin Temple from a traitor from within the order. The Silver Fox has turned up the heat against Shaolin, but Carter and the Holy Warrior Monks will stand firm -- or die fighting!

Yung has supernatural powers, which allow him to kill and rape young women, then turn them into vampires. His lover is Ngai, who has just killed her old husband. Husband's will is read by Lawyer Barsuk, and it states that his adult children, Lau Kwan and Lau Yee Tai, will get his money unless they die, in which case it goes to his lovely young wife, Ngai. Ngai kills Lau, but Lau's ghost confers with his father, and they plan revenge, with the unwilling help of Lawyer Barsuk. Filmed in Pattaya, Thailand.

University students are assigned to do special research in The Moral Education College during summer vacation. The school has been occupied by the Japanese to do cruel human experiments, they found an alumni records about ghost experience, and also found that some girls was mysterious disappeared. A staff of the school, Miss Fang led them to know the environment, then a chain of strange things happened in that evening, and finally they are forced to flee to a century-old tree, unexpectedly they saw the Principal of the college dig out some bones unconsciously under the tree. Are the bones and all the strange things related? Can the five people go out of the school safely?

Volatile triad boss Duanmu (Collin Chou) is in search of three pendants that are believed to hold parts of the map leading to a hidden treasure. He learns that the pendants are now in the possession of three teenagers, so he dispatches his gang henchmen after the kids. Luckily, super cop Lin Dan (Donnie Yen), armed only with his deadly martial arts skills, is there to save the day!

Four vignettes, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, deal with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood.

Do Over follows five characters over twenty four hours on the last day of the year. As the interrelated stories proceed, the connections between the lives of the five characters begin to reveal themselves and their stories unravel. By depicting five different characters at emotional crossroads, Do Over examines the struggle of overcoming our greatest fears; the unknown of what lies ahead in the future, the fading value of our existence in the present, and most of all, irreversible mistakes made in the past that may catch up to us.

Feng, a corrupted police officer, ordered to retrieve the diamonds within 48hrs, arrives at a remote village, following the mobile signal of his partner Chiang who stole the diamonds from the gang. While Feng and his men try to find Chiang in the village, they encounter the locals who seem naive but suspicious, and a ghost full of stories. Remake of a renowned Korean film To Catch A Virgin Ghost (2004).

Brigitte Lin's debut film. A young girl gets romantically involved with a teacher twice her age.

In 1984, a major fire broke out on the fourth floor of the Jin Xin Building, the residents on the 4th floor were trapped in the fire as the fire exits were blocked, which claimed a total of 19 lives. Pei who possesses psychic abilities, moves into the building, teaming up with Shao, a horror novelist seeking inspiration within the building, they investigate numerous unexplained terrifying events and aim to uncover the truth behind the tragic fire..

An aged Kung Fu practitioner travels across China, challenging the best Grandmaster from each province to prove his mastery of martial arts. Meanwhile is a plot developing behind his back.

The film is set in a pre-Covid Taipei, where a group of disenchanted souls are lost in a parallel virtual world.

Chi-yi is a veteran cop, who values his own safety more than anything else and is therefore infamous for his cowardice and poor efficiency at work. Yi-ping, on the other hand, has just graduated from the police academy and is more than ready to prove herself regardless of any risks. Daughter of the head of the National Policy Agency, Yi-ping is secretly kept away from danger by being appointed to team up with Chi-yi. Starting from a seemingly pointless case of a puppy’s accidental death, the essentially incompatible pair unexpectedly dig up the clues to a series of mysterious deaths.

During China's 1920s Republican Period, warlords carve out personal fiefdoms across the country and impose self-serving laws with the barrel of a gun. Into this anarchy rides a masked feminine Zorro, nom de guerre Violet, to do battle, right wrongs and foment rebellion against the most corrupt and brutal warlord of all, Tung Ta-Chou. Unbeknownst to Tung, however, Violet is his own daughter. Tung orders his psycho enforcer Master Wu to track down and dispose of this pesky rebel queen. Meanwhile, Violet begins a flirtation with an attractive stranger who comes to town with the other half of a treasure map held by Tung. Ultimately, Master Wu betrays the warlord on the lure of the complete treasure map, enabling Violet and the stranger to apprehend Master Wu and beat the warlord at his own game.

A group of women with various criminal skills are thrown into prison during World War 2. They escape and proceed to head off to destroy a chemical lab in a well fortified valley.

Directed by some of most well known Chinese-language directors of the time, the portmanteau film Four Moods was an attempt to alleviate Li Han-hsiang’s financial troubles during the late 1960s. Arguably one of his best works, King Hu’s short Anger is an adaptation of the famous Peking opera San Cha Kou; set to opera instrumentation and stylishly shot, the film deftly captures the tense showdown between political schemers, avengers and vagabonds inside an inn. Li Han-hsiang’s Happiness, inspired by the Strange Tales of Liaozhai, tells a tale of reprieve for a kind-hearted ghost, while Pai Ching-Jui’s Joy and Lee Hsing’s Sadness both explore the fateful encounters between mortal men and ghostly women.

A couple is torn by conflicting emotions. Jing and Mi are two women living in Taiwan who have been lovers for some time; Jing is a singer in a rock band who suffers from severe mood swings and has been suffering from a fractured relationship with her mother, while Mi is the more sedate and level-headed of the couple.

In an elite high school swimming team plagued by a sinister curse, five teens unwittingly unleash a chain of deadly events after exposing a forbidden teacher-student affair through a leaked video. As the curse reawakens, they must confront betrayal and despair while racing to uncover the truth and break the cycle of death, only to realize they are destined to become each other’s undoing.

In 1945, Japan had surrendered but the news did not reach a small village in China. The local guerrilla force still put up a hilarious fight with the Japanese command.

After a failed attempt to take his own life, a man discovers he's returned with four ghosts seeking to fulfil their last wishes in hopes of earning his own place in the afterlife.