Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

A story about a man and his girlfriend on a hot summer day.

Chung has been looking after his retarded older brother for decades, but finds out he has a girlfriend. A storm begins to brew in between the brothers...

1st sound / image jamming between Amund Ulvestad and Tzuan Wu.

CHI was trapped in a dark corner, where not even the brightest light could dispel the shadows that engulfed his soul.

The metamorphosis of the story “Madame Butterfly” told through the perspective of three women over the past century.

A peaceful and stable society - they have never seen it before.

Sophia, a high-class prostitute, attempts to induce an abortion in a hotel bathroom. When her pimp brother forces her back to work, she must find a way to hide her secret and keep her job at the same time.

After 30 years of cold war, Taiwan and China finally opened cross-strait trade and tourism in 1980. However, through decades of political and educational vilification of their counterparts by the KMT and CCP, and despite close economic and cultural ties, what lies beneath the diplomatic relations is a disconnect and mistrust that cannot be denied. KE is a failed business in Taiwan who hopes to start over as a 'Taiwanese Expat' in Shenzheng, China with a Taiwanese company. Lili, a laborer from China, meets her Taiwanese husband online and moves to Taiwan in hopes of a better life. Both KE and Lili cross the straits in hope of achieving what they cannot find in their homeland. But how much do they really know about that country across the straits?

This story is about climate disaster survivor and his comforter/savior.

An apartment. Two nights. A strange romance between a lonely policeman and a senior player.

This film is a mix of documentary and drama, featuring interviews, acted scenes, and imaginative elements. It delves into Taiwan’s fashion scene and way of life, combining the perspectives of designers, workers, and consumers. The movie shows how individuals pursue ideals influenced by media and trends. Through its portrayal of fixations on youth, beauty, and consumerism, it raises the question: do we discover ourselves through fashion or lose our sense of self?

Ken works night shifts at the local gas station. One night when he is reminiscing about his childhood in this once-thriving town at work, Long Foot, one of his close childhood friends, shows up. What should have been a happy reunion turns into a melancholic self-examination as Ken is reminded of an unpleasant memory that he never wants to face again.

Ah Fei, a Vietnamese who left home to work in Taiwan, escapes from his Taiwanese employer in hope to earn more money to send back home to his father. One day, he runs into Ah Hai, a police patrol officer, at the beach. Ah Hai sees Ah Fei in possession of syringes and uses the baton on him without giving him a chance to explain. By the beach, nine shots were eventually fired at Ah Fei. It’s the first time Ah Fei’s father is travelling out of Vietnam, only to be bringing home his son’s lifeless body.

Suat-ah is a contrary and stubborn woman, One day, she suddenly left, and we lost her before we had time to say anything. Suat-ah is my mother. The son tried to reconstruct the documentary of his mother's memory figure in the non-existent reality, hoping that the memory and warmth of his mother could remain in this world.

Tuvalu, This defenseless nation of 26 square kilometers will be the first island nation to be submerged by the oceans once the sea level rises due to global warming. The director Huang Hsin-yao left his hometown after the 88 flooding disaster in Taiwan in search of this disappearing island called Tuvalu. While aboard this swaying ship in the Pacific, various fantastic spectacles of Taiwan emerge in the mind of the director… Once out at sea barbecuing, he found under the sea…

Chen Si-yu, a junior high school girl, took her mother's surname after her parents divorced.But this completely unfamiliar name "Su Xin Yu" makes her uncomfortable and antipathy .The rapid changes in her family life have left her at a loss, and she has come to understand the complexities of the adult world, is only to discover that she is not looking for a superficial name, but a longing for a "perfect home."

"A Love Letter to Oneself" describes six young men and women who play roles that are 80 years apart from the Japanese rule and the Republic of China era, concatenating the different identities of the 1930s and 2010s, comparing the two The generational differences in occupations, lifestyles, concepts, and political environment profile the influence of the development of Taipei’s West District on Taiwan’s history.

A-Juan and A-Jin, an old couple in Taiwan, hope for their son to return home from Mainland China as they go through difficult times while everything seems to get worse...

A young woman, Kuo, embarks on a journey to find her birth family.

After listening to the story about millet and aboriginal, BaDu asks his teacher what millet is. In order to impress the teacher, BaDu and his best friend go on the trip to find millet.

Claude, the cloud maker, drops his tool and it gets picked up by Yin. While trying to retrieve his tool, the broken gadget turns into a horrifying storm monster. Claude must team up with Yin to stop it from becoming a disaster.

When one of their brothers is murdered and their boss is held in the Prison, the Hwa Clan, led by the poisonous Lady Nine Flower. It is up to a desperate Lady Nine Flower to save the day.

On Christmas Eve, Miss C’s life falls into chaos—tangled Christmas lights in her Pilates studio, a sudden lack of enthusiasm from her dating app matches, and even a rude old man insisting on joining her class. Overwhelmed by these frustrations, she struggles under the pressure. But as she navigates these unexpected challenges, she gradually regains her rhythm and comes to understand the true meaning of waiting and choice.

This documentary records the events of civil unrest in Taiwan that followed the "Red Martial Law" in 2008. It tells the story of abuses suffered by civilians at the hands of the authorities; of how state power has rapidly advanced to undermine civil rights; and investigates the problems of being educated to be "obedient" in Taiwanese culture.

The corpulent, middle-aged protagonists decides to end his suffering by committing a suicide. After a few pitiful attempts, a woman selling encyclopedias rings his doorbell and the drama turns into a comedy.

This landmark 1981–82 documentary series consists of weekly 25-minute episodes filmed across Taiwan using an ENG (Electronic News Gathering) camera. It documents local customs and social textures through a distinctly humanistic lens. The project also marks an early collaboration between Christopher Doyle and Chang Chao-Tang.

LIN is the captain of a Starship “Lucretius.” Their mission is to explore the scale of the universe. However, the endless journey makes the crew’s mind twisted. Engineer John ordering LIN to return to Earth. LIN tries to fight back and in the process is stabbed by John. The trauma forces LIN to fall into deep sense of unconsciousness…

In 1980s Taiwan, the most feared and most-wanted gunman, “Bullet Ghost,” strikes terror across the nation. When love finally enters his violent life, a ruthless manhunt forces him to choose: return to a blood-soaked path of killing or risk everything for a chance at redemption.

This film is like a person standing naked in the middle of a square, covered in wounds, holding up a sign that says “Free Hug.” Many people come to embrace him, and he embraces many in return. Yet this does not mean that those who embrace him are unscarred—it is only that they are clothed. — Director Zhang Yu

After her friend’s suicide, Toothbag buries her grief beneath anger and denial. Haunted by memories she can’t stop replaying, she struggles to accept the loss. But in a vivid dream, a final conversation with her friend shifts something in her. Waking up, she begins the painful journey of letting go, learning to honor her friend’s choice and confront her own sorrow.

Huang dropped out of school and started working at a pet grooming salon. When the New Year rolled around, she wants to advance her salary to give her parents red envelopes, but the manager, Tai Tai, shuts her down. Fed up with her tough manager and demanding customers, Huang reaches her limit and leads to chaos.

In 2016, Cheng Hsing-tse walked out of the prison as the first death-row inmate pending a retrial requested by prosecutors. Cheng was acquitted at last. Yet he cannot forget the kid he met on the day he was led in shackles by the police to pay respects to the kid's father at the mortuary. The kid must have grown up by now. Cheng wants to meet him again to forget about each other.

The daughter looked through the viewfinder of the camera and gazed upon her father's appearance before he passed away. Then she realized this estranged and absurd father had been influencing her all along. The one she had once run away from was also the one she missed the most.

My work is an attempt to combine the relationship between historicism, commodity totem worship and political semantics. I do not intend to respond to questions about political correctness, but also try to show the unsolved issues of art itself. What I care about is how they find enough channels between history, reality and the public. In short, my creation is the crystallization of personal complexity. As long as the perception that can be obtained through the idea, it can be regarded as a style in the development of my personality. All the warriors related to experience may become artistic associations. They are the result of profound meaning and endless reproduction. There is a mysterious place. ---Dean-E Mei's self-report

"Two Funerals" is a film that focuses on portraits one individual, how does one's mind and values changes? How does social pressure affect him? Compared with the film about social issues, such a story reflects the intrinsic value of human beings.

In an ordinary morning after glass eeling all night, an old fisher finds himself left alone in this desolate world. He wanders around in search of the spiritual trace of his deceased wife, seeking a way out in the endless cycle of the nature and human world.

At the age of thirty, Lin got tired of the secure and yet repetitive life within the system. Therefore, she decided to leave her comfort zone and went to Nepal, firmly believing that what she wanted was to establish long-term collaboration with a local group in some place. Lin’s sensitivity and thoughtfulness led her to discover the difficulties and mistreatment brought upon the Nepalese women by menstruation, the local environment and the culture. As a result, Lin aimed to make changes by promoting cloth menstrual pads, the menstrual education and the environmental protection. She set up a workshop and hired the women in the village to produce cloth menstrual pads. By doing so, Lin has provided the local women with work and established a social enterprise of cloth menstrual pads.

Tao litterateur Syaman Rapongan bridges the bond between father and son through the Tatala and his writing, preserving the memory of his people. Spanning seventy years, the film interweaves footage from different eras, evoking the spirit of the language and culture rooted in the sea and the body. Along this journey, Syaman Rapongan learned and borrowed a foreign language to tell the story of his own people.

"Mazu" or "The Sea God" has been the most important religious belief of ordinary people in my hometown for four hundred years. Along the coast of China and even in the Nanyang region, there is at least one temple dedicated to Mazu in various seaside cities-this geographical and historical distribution coincides with the contemporary economic or industrial area of Chinese society. It is frustrating that rapid economic development has led to global warming. The factories located on the coast of southern China from all over the world will eventually cause flooding and inundate these temples dedicated to Mazu. This is indeed a very ironic discovery for our civilization, "We", not only Chinese or all human beings, now or in the past, how can we Chinese avoid this upcoming tragedy?

A documentary on the history of film studios in Taiwan.

Lo-Sheng Sanatorium, Taiwan’s only isolated hospital for leprosy patients, has become home to patients living here for 60 years. With the construction of MRT, the government forced patients to move out, tearing Lo-Sheng down for economic benefits. In the face of authority, patients encourage each other in their daily life.

Lost Taiwanese monster movie about a giant frog.

Dremedrema is the chief heir of her tribe. Being the eldest, she therefore, must accept her inheritance of the position and status according to the tradition.Though her mother and children hope that she would disavow the obligation. Even Dremedrema had run away from her tribe once, her ancestral spirits has never given up on her. She is a tribal chief who doesn’t speak the native tongue. At the same time she is a devoted single mother of three. She is a chief without her traditional tribal family house, unable to live within the tribe. She misses home. But despite ten years’ effort, it is a home that she cannot easily return to.

The son who was watching the movie received news footage from his friend. At the same time, the father kept calling him to turn off the TV in the living room. Going up and down the stairs, passing by the photos of Michael Jackson, everything seems to imply the scars that repeat in history.

Huang Hsin-Yao’s directorial debut on documentary

There is a mysterious relationship between human and pets. They communicate in a non-verbal way. In the process of communication, they are full of feelings and guesses. This situation also exists in other intimate relationships.