Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

In the Amis language, a moment signifies peace and a sense of ‘home’ when the ocean calms. This metaphorically relates to the journey of a group of Amis people who left their coastal homes in the 1970s for city work. In Taipei, they established the “Xizhou Tribe” near a riverbank, contributing to urban development but ultimately facing displacement. This dichotomy highlights the choices they made: some stayed in cities, while others returned to ancestral lands. Decades later, as they completed new houses, their story reflects a deeper narrative of indigenous urbanization—a crossroads of starting anew or enduring broken connections with their past and identity.

Wall to Wall is a triptych of stories created across different moments in time, each orbiting the theme of love: a reunion after a breakup, the quiet friction of daily life, and a conversation altered by experimental influence. Through silence and speech, the film traces the subtle marks left by time.

I’ve practiced these words for 20 years now, but maybe being candid isn’t the best idea. I’m starting my countdown again, another 20 years. Maybe the time will be right by then.

Ring of Fire, Annular Solar Eclipse, June 21, 2020. The covid-19 Pandemic is still changing the world. The Queen said, "Better days will return. We will meet again."

Two Uigur brothers and a friend are in love with parkour, a kind of extreme sport. Regardless of opposition from their worried mothers, the boys train themselves to be the best in an upcoming parkour event in Beijing while managing to iron out additional difficulties. They lose the game, but eventually they learn much more about their true selves.

There are always some moments you don’t want to say a word. The world is silent and you turn silent.

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.

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

Beginning with a woman describing traumatic scenes in her family, the film uses a non-linear and mise-en-abyme narrative to make it difficult to distinguish between reality and fiction.

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

In Taiwan’s struggles for housing justice, it is always the women who hold on until the very end, standing guard over the home. For them, it may be their grandfather’s home, their father’s, their husband’s, or the future home of their children—but rarely their own. These women support one another, refusing to yield, and with resilience they resist the state, the law, and powerful corporations under a patriarchal system. Told from a female perspective, this film asks: what does “home” truly mean to them? Why can they endure for so long, refusing to leave? And, at the same time, it confronts another question—where are the men?

During the Lantern Festival, Chen San encounters Wu Niang, and mutual attraction blossoms. Chen San cunningly enters the Huang household as a servant. Through clever schemes and determination, Wu Niang resists an arranged marriage, and the lovers ultimately unite in matrimony. This film is recognized as one of the four classic Taiwanese opera plays. In 1981, Yang Li-hua juggled both television and film commitments, leading her troupe in this production. This film marked the end of the taiyupian era.

Taiwanese movie

In the Third World War, many countries have used nuclear weapons excessively, which has almost destroyed the world. Nuclear radiation has affected almost all organisms, resulting in fusion and mutation, and only a very small number of people have survived.

It's a simple story of how a blind person uses his own way to take care of a 6 yrs old little girl. The movie shows a colorful and sporty blind people's world through this little girl's eyes.

By Heart follows Catherine as she tries to figure out a way to hold on to her American roots and identity, after being brought to Taiwan due to her parents' separation, by resisting an indoctrinating Confucian text she has to memorize at school.

A spy story on woman island.

A Taiwanese American filmmaker questions her family’s silence around the cycles of violence that have persisted since the Chinese Communist Revolution of 1949.

Right in the afternoon after the graduation ceremony, the boys' plan to celebrate was disturbed by a sudden rain. Xiao-hai rushed to the park and it was already past the time he and Xiao-pan were supposed to meet. The rain had stopped; everything looked brand-new. Summer is on its way, but a sudden death has made everything somewhat different.

The Check Fun Store is an innovative business model. Every store is divided into hundreds of small checks to display and sell a wide range of creative products provided by people who rent these checks. Thanks to its risk diversification nature, the Check Fun Store business model proliferated in Taiwan when the financial crisis hit in 2007 to carry people through the global economic downturn.

Fifteen chapters unfold across the Bunun villages of Litu and Wulu in Taitung, Taiwan, and the surrounding mountains and forests. Children dream of chasing — or being chased by — spirit animals; elders recall lives shaped by snake and bear myths; strange encounters emerge in the habitats of birds.

Seven years. Eight married couples. They are open and honest, reflecting on why they married each other in the first place, why they have lost the passion, and why they are tired of the other person's problems with the mother-in-law; they talk about sex, having children, and the fact that they can't stand each other any longer...

"I'm a cultured woman, travelling about footloose and fancy-free…”So begins a lilting tune from Taiwan's“Dance Age”of the 1920s and 1930s, a paradoxical time when the island's occupation by Japan also brought youth culture and a measure of artistic freedom. Women smoked cigarettes, love scandals were rife, and risqué Taiwanese pop was born. Embarking on a voyage to visit the surviving singers, composers and record aficionados of the era, this lively historical documentary mixes engaging interviews with catchy songs, haunting period footage, and reenactments of the unrequited romance between the adored chanteuse Chun Chun and her songwriter CHEN Chun-Yu.

Lin and Xu lived together in a rooftop addition in Taipei, supporting each other's dreams along the way. Now, Xu has decided to move out of the rooftop addition, while Lin chooses to stay in Taipei and continue pursuing her dreams. The red sofa left behind by the moving company opens up an opportunity for the two. They must now confront the ambiguous relationship they never openly discussed and figure out how to face the separation.

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.

Originating from the Taiwanese Opera piece of the same title, the film Sam-phik-Ing-tâi, performed by Bí-too troupe, has preserved several unique theatrical plots and performance style. The film premiered 60 years ago as a commercial release, and contrasted the Huangmei Opera film The Love Eterne from Hong Kong with its vivid characters and humorous dialogues.

This is a story of two men and their friendship lasting the duration of a day. Zhiming, a security guard who works in an underground car park, and who has accomplished absolutely nothing in life and no friends to speak of, saves a young man named Yao from suicide by drowning in the sea. Yao, once determined to kill himself before this, felt deeply moved by the man before him who has risked himself.

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.

In late 2004, 125 Philippines women migrant workers came to the Taiwan International Workers’ Association (TIWA) to file complaints for not receiving their salary. While filming there were sweet scenes of lesbian couples cuddling each other in front of the camera. This documentary of a labor struggle unexpectedly became love stories. These women courageously fight against the state policies while struggling for love!

Abishag is an Indonesian Muslim who tries to make a living in Taiwan. Her job is to look after an old man aboned by his own family. The old man locks himself, Abishag, in his own confined space, watches porn films all day long, trying to feel alive again. Abishag is not used to her work; it requires intimate contacts when doing diaper changing jobs, which makes her very uncomfortable, let alone her religious belief rules the opposite. No one can escape from death; the old man knows it. He tries to feel the energy of life from Abishag but fails in attempt. Day after day, these two reluctant persons manage to constrain their sadness, but the pressure is about to explode. Love may be the best present for the old man, but who is willing to offer that to him? Is Abishag able, willing to give?

Hua Yang and Afa are two competitive freediving athletes. One is focused on breaking the deepest record in Asia, while the other aspires to claim the crown of Taiwan’s top freediver. Both received invitations to compete in the prestigious Blue Hole Vertical Blue Depth Competition. This documentary follows their journey from land to underwater,capturing their contrasting styles and perspectives as they merge in the tranquil yet mysterious blue depths.

After being brutally raped by a drunken cabbie Rose becomes a recluse and plans her revenge. She takes on a new identity as the Mad Rose the vigilante. Tracking down rapists and criminals is her new occupation and she seems to relish the work. The Taipei cops soon get wind of her violent antics and set about trapping her. (IFD films website)

A documentary film about the U2 surveillance planes that were flown by the secret 35th Squadron of ROC Air Force.

A detective team receives a mysterious anonymous letter claiming the sender stole their magnifying glass, along with a riddle. Lucky and his friend John embark on a journey from the classroom to the playground, finally reaching the field where they discover the last clue has been taken by the school bully.

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.

A brash martial arts master is released from the afterlife by the Lord of the Underworld to right wrongs and fight demons on Earth.

My mother left our home when I was nine years old. For about ten years, it was just my father and me. When I turned twenty-one, she came back—moving into the master bedroom that had been locked for a decade and digging out countless old photographs from the past.

At seventeen, our body gets restless and our head gets hot. We try to feel ourselves; we influence ourselves, and we collide with ourselves.

Respire is set in a fictional world transformed by a deadly, airborne virus in which people are required to wear masks at all times. A young girl who knows her time is short decides to enjoy one last day with the boy she likes.

Ranko and Shuhei both arrived in New York 3 years ago. One is a hairdresser, the other, a Jazz singer; both hoped to make it in city. 3 Years later, Shuhei tells Ranko that he is leaving New York and returning to Japan so he can make a better living, leaving Ranko to reflect on their relationship and say goodbye to the once passionate dreams of making it in the big city.