Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

Giraffe-like construction cranes are avid eaters. They forage around in the woods and fields for their feeds: the collective longing for development and prosperity. As they crane their necks longer, they make the fantasy of progress more alluring. And that is what Chung-Ming Wang steps forward to fight. Left his stable life behind, he devoted himself into local environmentalism in his hometown Tamsui(Danshui), tried to keep it distant from developmentalism that Taipei had been suffered for long. Few years later, he decided to change his way of political participation. This documentary film depicts his third attempt to run in the City Council Election in 2014, including the difficulties and conflicts he encounters and the diverse imaginations toward progress. The film also tries to brings up an important question: do we need more edifices in our city, or we need to find a way to edify ourselves?

Combine animal rights, vegetarianism, feminism, lesbian, gay, male sex, Mozi, Hu Shi, Liang Qichao, Zhang Xiuya, Zhang Ailing.. with their own parrots, quails, little white birds, swallows, birds, rabbits in many households , cats, dogs... intertwined.

A French director who lives in Taipei tries to make a a film.

A little boy goes to the rooftop of his building, his secret getaway and an open door to other worlds he is not yet aware of.

These days, Cheng-Cheng seems different. He doesn’t play baseball anymore and stays away from the field. It feels like he has something he can’t tell anyone. His mom tries to help but doesn’t know why. The fear and confusion come from one of the adults he trusts the most. One evening, Cheng-Cheng stands by the field, holding his bat, wondering—should he swing, or not?

Young Qin Chong fled his home, and was later adopted by the Zhu family, who own an oil shop, but his stepmother frames him and casts him out, forcing him to sell oil on the streets. A chance encounter with courtesan Yao Qin sparks instant attraction. When the Zhu family faces hardship, Qin Chong returns, vowing to achieve success in the imperial examinations, while Wu Ba kidnaps Yao Qin but meets his death in his own mansion, leaving her holding the murder weapon.This adaptation broke from tradition, replacing the usual gongs and drums with a Chinese orchestra for its score, adopting a folk-song style.

A documentary about a Taiwanese poet Wu Sheng.

Shao Qui has painted with her close brother Shao Kai all her life, not knowing the hidden secrets of her brothers private life. After her brothers suicidal death, she is forced by fate to live with her brothers male lover Fang Zhou. Through her brother's lover she learns the lesson of the Chinese proverb "The love of the house extends even to the crows perching on the roof".

A documentary included with Jolin Tsai's 2006 compilation album J-Top. Includes behind the scenes footage of music videos, performance recordings, and various other content such as dance practice recordings.

A biographical documentary filmed in 1999 on the occasion of Chang Chao-tang (張照堂) receiving the National Award for Arts (國家文藝獎) in the Fine Arts category (美術類). In the film he is credited as both director and editor under the pseudonym “Gao Shang-tu” (高尚土)—a name derived by decomposing the character “tang” (堂) into its constituent elements “gao” (高), “shang” (尚), and “tu” (土). Semantically, the pseudonym implies a counter-reference to the notion of temple-like, institutional “high culture,” redirecting emphasis instead toward the vernacular and the earthy—suggesting that what is truly “noble” lies in the force emerging from the “soil” (土) of the people. For this reason, the film may also be understood as a semi-autobiographical documentary that carries an element of self-writing within its particular historical context.

Zhen Zhen and her single parent mother struggled with livelihood. They had a wish to own, a modest house that they could call home. In a Chinese calligraphy practice occasion, Zhen Zhen met Grandpa Liu, a lonely old man who then became her landlord-to-be by chance. Zhen Zhen started to reside at Grandpa Liu's house and became his finial protégée in Chinese calligraphy. Facilitated by internet communication, Zhen Zhen's help Grandpa Liu's homosexual son to return home and made reconciliation with Grandpa Liu to accept his alternative life. Zhen Zhen and her mother's wish of owning a house still floats in the air for the time being, but they persist to realize it with every little step they strive. The film talks about the true value of the family and the hope in which communication barriers amongst adults were bridged by a youngster's perspective. It is a heart smoothing story entailing how a child's innocence angle the web of complexity within a family.

Love of Tseng Wen River

A dance in a small fishing village became a memory of the old man. The flood of drugs set off the detective’s ambition. The heroism of the young beetle opened the curtain for black humor!

Lu Bin, a taciturn young man who has recently been released from a juvenile detention centre, is assigned to learn cooking at a culinary school. On his third day under the instruction of the head chef Ms. Li, a sum of money disappears from the school office. The teachers at the school turn their suspicion to Lu Bin. While Ms. Li is a strict teacher to Lu Bin, she also sympathizes with him. If Lu Bin is identified as a thief, he will be expelled from the school. Two teachers decide to investigate further, and Ms. Li is forced to face her suspicion of Lu Bin, along with another unexpected secret.

Why did you draw? How did you begin to draw? Why did you stop drawing? How did you go back to drawing? Will you keep drawing?

A Taiwanese husband and a Vietnamese wife, a dream about three goose eggs. According to a Vietnamese tradition, a pregnant woman has to eat three goose eggs before she gives birth, to ensure that her baby will grow healthy and smart. A husband wanders around Taiwan, for his wife and their baby, in search of three rare goose eggs.

In these freckled, disjointed montages of everyday life, we see a faint hint of an upcoming festival as the theatre troupe sound its drums; the children either sit and gaze, or clamber to see the lead actress. This 8mm roll of film was found after LONG Sih-liang passed away in 2012 and is now shown for the first time in 51 years.

Once a rising star in Taiwan's mountaineering boom, A-Gong fell into debt and went on the run, hiding on Yushan before surrendering. After prison, he returned to the mountains, rebuilding his life step by step. Now, he's a living legend among Taiwan's high-altitude trails.

The sister school from Shanghai led a delegation to visit the girls' school in Taiwan, and the student clubs took turns performing at the opening event. Meanwhile, the honor guard was suddenly informed by the school that their performance had been canceled due to the national flag issue.

It came as a shock at the peak of her artist career, HSU Su-chen died of cancer. She went cross-disciplinarily in a short 14 years of her creative life. From early work such as “Self-Portrait” revealing multi layers of her own images to “Plant-Paradise” which collaborated with many people of different expertise lead her to the winning of Taishin Bank Arts Annual Award. HSU always walks out of the box to touch all of us from deep inside herself to ordinary plants as well as neglected communities in foreign countries. Every step of her attempts raised applause. This film assembles HSU’s talks and images of exhibitions of different locality spreading world wide including Vietnam, Micronesia, Australia and footages photographed by her personally at many places in Taiwan. It tells an extraordinary story and unseen visions of a distinct artist who endlessly discovers real issues of human life.

Is it possible that a group of people share our culture and fate, but are drifting in another part of the ocean? Taiwanese aboriginal musicians, Suming and Baobu, are invited to New Caledonia for a month of musical exchange. They lived with local Kanak musicians, playing music and sometimes composing together. In the end, they all found that the secret to innovation and globalization is to re-discover one’s own cultural roots.

In 1871, a ship traveling from Miyako Island to Shuri to deliver annual tribute was caught in a storm and drifted to southern Taiwan. Onboard were 69 Ryukyuan passengers who reached an area inhabited by the Paiwan people. However, some Ryukyuans were killed in a tragic incident that later became known as the Mudan Incident. This event was used as a pretext for Japan’s invasion of Taiwan (the 1874 Taiwan Expedition) and also influenced Japan’s annexation of Ryukyu, significantly shaping the geopolitical landscape of East Asia.

23-year-old young artist aims to build a settlement in Central Taipei, offering the artists a place to work with total freedom. As a result, he sets up a tent on the Huashan Grassland and carries out an experimental project called the “120 Grassroots Self-Autonomous Zone.” As the settlement gets bigger and bigger, the Utopia gradually takes shape. Nonetheless, when the shocking murder and dismemberment of a woman happens on the Grassland, the authorities demolish the settlement and these young artists are chased out of the Grassland by the public opinion. Having experienced the rise and the fall of the 120 Grassroots Self-Autonomous Zone, where would this group of young people go as they are forced into exile?

Taiwan’s 4–0 win in the 2024 Premier12 sparked everyone’s pride. From underdogs to champions, their story hits the screen in Team Fantastic!

This is a story about the soul’s farewell. Inspired by children whose lives have ended and the words they wish to say to their mothers, contemplates whether they continue to exist somewhere, quietly experiencing and observing the world.

With a rabbit's dead body in hand, a glove puppetry performer reenacts the movements of rabbits as imagined by humans. The project was initiated by the death of a laboratory rabbit, and was inspired by the artist's family memories. The artist's grandma served in an animal laboratory for thirty years, during which, due to the particularity of her job, she had to dissect living animals for observation and experiments.

Two boys uncover their boss's drug stash, leading to theft and sale. Their actions provoke a confrontation, resulting in a larger catastrophe that casts an irreversible shadow over their lives.

Apin returns to the forgotten village, a place that has long been abandoned. At night, he steps on to a sacred spot, clad in the traditional Pangcah attire. He starts a lonely dance and song, with no-one there to hold his hands.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) broke out at Heping Hospital in Taiwan in 2003. The government decided to isolate the hospital and asked all staff member to return. Dr. Chou defied the return order. Following Dr. Chou's lawsuit against the government, an inconvenient truth in this affected hospital was discovered.

Five years after participating in a failed government protest in 2009, Sheng-han and his friends storm the Executive Yuan as members of the Sunflower Student Movement. Through failures and choices, these young activists on the cusp of adulthood seek to affirm their self-identity.

As tensions escalate across the Taiwan Strait, a theatre photographer unknowingly captures a ghost. From that moment on, the theatre begins to quietly take the place of reality. Based on true stories, this film explores war — what has passed and what waits across the strait.

The main character refuses to read a comic recommended by a friend, only to regret it later.

In 2067, the population in Taiwan declines fast and the proportion of elderly people weighs heavily on the scale.

【The Optimist】The album begins with the first song "32.63N 117.14W", which is a landmark located on a beach on the west coast of the United States, and it is the place where the protagonist of the story was last seen. The concept of the new album comes from Anathema’s earlier work [A Fine Day To Exit]. Lead guitarist Daniel Cavanagh explained: "The protagonist of the story suddenly disappeared. Where did he go? Did he start a new life or start a new life? Knocked down by fate, not accounted for, and no one knows his whereabouts." Album producer Tony Doogan [Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Super Furry Animals] suggested recording the album with a full orchestra, which is also Anathema A method that has not been tried in many years. Lead singer Vincent Cavanagh said: "Tony wanted to capture the drama of the band, the tension that can only be found when all the members are playing together face to face, and the results are quite admirable."

May a building have its own reincarnation? Once upon a time, there's a region of canal's dockyard in the center of Tainan city in Taiwan. Later in 1970s, the canal gradually lost its function and the large residential and commercial mixed mall "China Town" had been built at the site. China Town was once the most prosperous mall in the city, however, by more than three decades of rise and fall, the city's authority planned to demolish the building for urban renewal plan. The China Town makes no exception of those failing shopping malls all around this island. As for those residents who have lived in the China Town for a long time experience most of the death and life of the city.

On the journey to depict "borders," Because Watching Pacifies captures two KMT military dependents' villages established for surveillance purposes following the Chinese Civil War. In the mountainous region traversed by Taiwan's Central Cross-Island Highway and the highlands that border Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, the villages were established in conflict zones along ethnic frontiers.

Bullied by Bí-tin, who also fancies Tshiu-sing, Lē-hun is saved from an assault by Bí-tin’s father, Guân-hìng, revealing a buried past—Guân-hìng once shared a tragic romance with Lē-hun’s mother, Xiumei, which was sabotaged by his wife, Yuejiao. Years later, these intertwined love stories resurface, altering the fates of all involved. Directed by HSIN Chi in his final Taiyupian, with a theme song by Judy ONGG, it poignantly captures the era’s social issues.

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...