Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

An animated tale featuring Bruce Lee and classic Chinese myths and folklore.

There is no dialogue or narration in this "fake" documentary, which has the look of a real documentary, but actually uses actors to portray awakening residents of Taipei as they go about their morning routines. With the camera as our guide we see lively early morning markets, residents going to church, students practicing singing, people exercising, and others heading off to work.

A Kiss to Remember is a Taiwanese Romance starring Jimmy Wang Yu.

On screen, Master Luo is all charm and flavor, crafting perfect mango ice. Off camera, he's weary and worn. After filming, he rushes to the hospital, gently caring for his ailing mother in silence, fearing to disturb her when she was sleeping soundly on the bed...

Kai wants to become a pastor, following his father's footsteps, which causes a misunderstanding between Kai and his closeted boyfriend Jay. On the other hand, Jay is thinking about going abroad for his training in the soccer team. They find themselves struggling with each other's choice.

Truku elder Temu continues to work in the field after he has passed the land down to his sons. One day, the family is holding a ritual, but Halong, Temu's second son is late. Soon after the ritual begins, Siqay, Temu's eldest son, asks Halong to talk to the land developer.

Short animation by Holly Lo

This film re-examines major environmental movements and events in Taiwan from the 1980s to 2018, including the protest against LCY Chemical Corp in Hsinchu, anti-DuPont movement in Lukang, movement against the expansion of petrochemical industry, anti-nuclear and anti-air pollution protests. It is a compilation of over 30 years of documentary footage and interviews of those who took part in the protests.

Since 2009, the filmmaker has spent 12 years documenting the ever-changing times of three townships along the coast of Tainan County, namely Beimen, Jiangjun and Qigu. Through the lenses, human activities are seen closely connected with the surrounding nature, while maintaining its own charm. The film subtly captures a singular way of life and a sense of time suspended in the past, present and future.

An Zhuo is a shy and polite teenager. His parents are very strict. In addition to normal classes, he has been supervised to learn English, Spanish and violin. Every day is full of classes. However, what he is really interested in is watching the sky with a telescope at night. One day, a super baby from outer space accidentally enters his world. Appears to be in the vein of E.T.

A disabled girl Candy and a penny arcade staff Bae won the jackpot that night as they hit the triple seven. They were trapped in the bitter reality at the age when they both long for the coming of a bright future. A bag full of tokens was all they had in order to leverage their future.

Founded in 1980, Lan Ling Theater is the first experimental theater company in Taiwan and the main promoter of the small theater movement. The troupe was disbanded in 1991. Since then, every ten years, everyone starts to re-perform together. In April 1983, “Experimental Actors Studio" premiered in Taipei. In May 2018, they delivered four performances at the National Theater. In the next four years, they toured nine cities and had 20 performances. The original class reunion turned out to be more like a graduation trip.

In the heart of White Shirt lies a sword technique, a stone staircase, and an archway, symbolizing his unfulfilled desires. During an examination, his master confiscates his sword, leaving him frustrated. To clear his mind, White Shirt descends the mountain, unaware that a true trial is about to unfold.

On a Saturday morning, Shan and Xuan have a fight over a missing item. The story gradually unveils the true aspects of each individual when the issues inevitably surface.

Three mothers became friends because of their kids with autism. They learn, encourage, and support each other. Although they live in different regions of Taiwan, they form a strong relationship and connection. The tough moms arrange trips and visit each other with their kids, helping these Asperger syndrome kids to experience different family lifestyles, learn social skills, build and maintain relationships.

On the eve of Taiwan’s controversial referendum related to same-sex marriage, the world is crying for an outlet under the stiffing social atmosphere. Jie, a woman in her early 30s, is trying to balance her life between taking care of her ill mother in Taipei city, her aspiration as a substitute teacher in a rural county, and her lesbian identity. Her effort to earn recognition from her parents and from work falls apart after experiencing a major train derailment accident, followed by the death of her mother. Such life-changing events awaken her desires to break free from the status quo burdened by social and familial responsibilities to “fit in” and “impress”. She realizes she cannot fulfill her aspiration as an educator in the current education system and starts making peace with life of her own accord.

The "Wannsee Conference" recalls the Nazi meeting at Lake Wannsee deciding the Jews' fate. This work takes its title from that event to allude to powerful figures across eras who, though expressing different ideas, ultimately echo "Eve Clone," revealing shared ambitions. These figures are depicted as "Eve Clone," a Babylonian idol, revered yet marked by 666, combining evil and seduction, boasting before God while plotting ultimate schemes for humanity.

At a deserted petrol station in the mountains, a foreign man and a woman travel in a stolen van to run away from the police. A mist descends, obscuring their paths and reality.

With only a blurry photo and an unfinished novel, a Taiwanese novelist struggling with writer’s block decides to travel to New York and search for his past lover from ten years ago. Along the way, he meets a documentary filmmaker who films this process.

They connected through music. Now, with Yujia gone, Jiankai plays his heart to bring him back.

“What were you doing last year, when I took this photo from a train passing by your house?”

Archy, Chun, and Shanghai left home for their studies in Taipei and share a small, shabby apartment after finishing university. They seem to be a group of artists but deep down, they are just three disoriented losers who are jobless, futureless and directionless.

In vacation with his girlfriend and his son, a father has to face an uncontrolled jealousy for the young boy.

"Wild Cursive" is the third piece of Taiwanese dancer and choreographer Lin Hwai-min's Cursive trilogy, a captivating series translating the development of the fascinating art form of Chinese calligraphy into dance. As Lin says himself, the final part marks the climax of the trilogy, because it corresponds to the completely detached, free and highly abstract forms of “spontaneous” calligraphy. The performance contains elements of Tai Chi and is musically accompanied by compositions by Jim Shum and Liang Chun-mei. The performance was recorded in 2009 at the National Theater in Taipei, Taiwan.

Still waiting for her graduate school results, Lyn returns to her grandmother’s house for the summer, hoping to escape the anxiety of uncertainty. With nothing much to do, she signs up for driving lessons, just to keep herself busy—only to unexpectedly reunite with her childhood friend, Rocky.

On a full moon night, a ten-year-old girl from a farming family in a remote village is lured by Moosina into a cave in the mountains, where she uncovers the secret about why the mountain demon always plays dirty tricks on children.

On Raúl Ruiz's missing Taiwanese film "La comédie des ombres" and the projection of Clark's "Double Ghost" at the Chin Pao Shan cemetery on 19 august 2018 (anniversary of Ruiz's death and Clark's birthday).

The Malaysian father, Beng Soon, came to Taiwan to investigate the disappearance of his son, Kah Choon. During the process, he gradually realized his lack of understanding towards Kah Choon, while also discovering the changes in Kah Choon.

A truck drives into a square and a moveable tent is set up. Audience members enter and hear the faint voices from the cracks in society. As the tent becomes a convergence of the thoughts of those both on stage and off, we feel the power of resistance that the entire action entails. Functioning both as observer and participant, the director documents the tent's movements around Taiwan in the past decade.

Ah-Fu, burdened with overwhelming debt, moves into a container home deep in the woods with his nine-year-old son, Wei-Wei. Together with his girlfriend Jing-Wen and her seven-year-old daughter Huan-Huan, this makeshift, struggling family does their best to get through each day. Though life is poor, these small, fleeting moments gradually gather into a warm current of memories in the child’s heart. Years later, the container home they once lived in appears in the news. Wei-Wei is drawn back to those memories—Ah-Fu’s disappearance, Jing-Wen leaving without a word, a rusted biscuit tin, and a set of unclaimed human remains.

Ming, an 11-year-old boy, has clammy and sweaty hands. His crush, Tina asked for an exchange diary, but Ming fears that she will find out his little secret by writing it. Therefore, Ming consequently comes up with a plan that could go wrong.

Xiaoyu, who has married and moved across the Strait to Taiwan, has to care for her mother-in-law who is in hospital. The dual pressures of work and family leave her struggling to cope. Meanwhile, The drill alarm went off…

Little crocodile wants a little dress, but mummy says: "Boys don't wear dresses". Little crocodile doesn't understand. Why not? Aren't they cute?

On the day when Hui’s long-gone father suddenly reappears, she and her sister spend happy hours with him. However, when Father announces they will embark on a journey abroad, Hui knows she must reveal the truth about his mental illness.

When Birdy was young, he was like a fledgling still learning how to fly. He needed care and nurturing from his family to grow strong, yet he didn’t want to grow into the person his family expected him to be. SECOND ROUND is a coming-of-age documentary that intertwines Birdy’s gender transition with his inner emotional transformation—pulling back, pushing back, confusion, courage, fear, anxiety, and taking one last all-in gamble. We walk alongside Birdy through countless thoughts and struggles, witnessing a life crack open, grow, and ultimately find its way back to itself.

A feature film that reveals the love and lust between two women, the conflicts between gay family and traditional stereotypes. It finds back the forgotten love with a romantic touch.

Unable to cope with the accidental loss of his wife, an out of work father struggles to give his daughter the happiest day of her life before executing a plan.

Delivery guy A-Rong is bringing a birthday cake to his lover on Little Liuqui Island. On the ferry to Little Liuqiu, he encounters Xiao-Yu, who is rushing to a destination wedding on the island. Xiao-Yu is already late for the wedding and she has left her luggage on the taxi she took to Donggang. All she has on her now are the wedding invitation and some cigarettes....

A-Ding couldn't let go her feelings for Chih-Yun. She ran to the gas station Chih-Yun worked at and tried to make up with her. But A-Ding's persistence and willfulness made it awkward. The only thing she could do is to leave alone.

After fleeing Europe, the brilliant scientist and mad doctor Frankenstein prepares his campaign of revenge against all of humanity in distant China. Completely isolated from the outside world, he develops his terrifying kung-fu monsters in his laboratory, using both test tubes and operating tables, quickly spreading panic and terror. With his weapon of horror, he also intends to destroy the Earth's axis. No one dares to oppose him, no army can stop his monsters. Only the Kung Fu Super Riders, a small elite troop of daring death riders, possess the technological skills, thanks to their advanced weaponry, to avert catastrophe. A race against time begins...

We are comforted by facts, by the familiarity of things we know to be ‘true.’ The sun rises in the East. There are twenty-four hours in a day. I exist. These truisms simplify our lives, enable us to get through the process of living. We are not afraid to leap into the air, because we know we will land on the ground. So we get by, day by day, until that unexpected moment when we are overwhelmed by the whisper in our hearts as we are sitting in a bustling coffee shop or walking down a crowded sidewalk, or as we are lying in bed with a loved one, nestled together... Despite all of our knowing, we will never be known. All That Remains is a meditation on the fluid boundary between dream and reality, fear and desire. It is an invitation to see and be seen.

Southern Taiwan, a night-shift factory lies quiet like a ruin. Machines stilled, lights flickering, time caught in a moment—unmoving, unresolved. A-Bang, a Taiwanese guard on patrol, works among migrant workers.

ZHENG Dao-nan and Xiao Bei, a pair of well-renowned high school table tennis players nicknamed “Nan-yang and Bei-feng,” lost connections with each other after encountering a gang-brawling incident. Many years later, Xiao Bei led several young ex-gangster to run an industrial-style barber shop. At the same time, ZHENG was released from prison with the mystery of the death of his stepfather, the Mafia Don. The two reunite and work to stop a burring storm in the mafia. After investigating, deducting, and piecing the puzzles together, they finally get hold of the secret ledger that can reshape the landscape of the criminal underworld. In the end, they each have to make their own choices of either getting revenge, reviving their father’s business, returning to the mafia, or living a simple life as ordinary citizens.

Fewer number of indigenous people in Taiwan still believe in Shamanism. Shamans bore responsibility for communicating with the spirit world, and relied on rituals to help others to avoid misfortune. However, both the suffering patient who wishes to have a ritual performed and the shaman performing the ritual have their own troubles. Can these wounded spirits find healing in beliefs?

Thirty-four year-old Alun formed the first hip-hop dance group 'The Party' soon after totalitarian rule ended in Taiwan in the early 90s. The group eventually disbanded, but Alun's passion for hip-hop remained. He's about to compete in Juste Debout, a worldwide street dance competition to take place in Paris. Where will this journey take him? Eight high school students born in the 90s, and half the age of Alun, make up 'Undergradu-eight' Supported by a more open society that has come to embrace pop culture, what is the dream they're hoping to achieve through hip-hop?

A letter with no receiver, connected two lonely souls from different ages and different countries. 9 years old Kageyama Kota from Japan wrote a letter to “Dear Mr. X” in school writing class, which was sent out by his mischievous classmates. To his surprise, “Dear Mr. X” wrote back.