Discoveries from Taiwan World Cinema

A poetic documentary that brings the viewer into the household of a Taiwanese mother and daughter who share an apartment, but express their own histories within different Tongzhi (LGBTQ) communities.

Founded in 1979, Lanlin Theatre Troupe is the first evertheatre group in Taiwan. It has inspired and nurturedimportant figures in the theater industry of Taiwanduring the past 30 years. This is a story about the rise of ageneration and the fall of the oldest theatre troupe inTaiwan. Having spent their early life in this troupe, these artists are devoted to bridging traditional Chinese theater and modern art form.

How far does one have to go to get back into the endless stream of a child's imagination, and where does it actually lead?

CHANG is a responsible and hard-working staff member who is framed by his supervisor and forced to quit his job. He must pay off the loan. In despair, CHANG tells the debt collector that the huge amount of recycled banknotes can be stolen from the Central Engraving and Printing Plant. The debt collector decides to orchestrate a heist operation. The team robbers are made up of a variety of socially marginalized pariahs, and even CHANG’s high school daughter joins the team by accident. Can they really pull off this unprecedented banknote heist?

A boy struggles in the middle of an art exam while others are working on their masterpieces. His mind starts wandering as time flies by, and he realises that as long as he enjoys the process, no-one else's opinion matters.

A documentary short about a man constructed facial mask map during the pandemic.

There is only a little boy on the planet. Day after day, even the boy is lonely however he works very hard to keep his daily routine implemented.All the efforts he does is just waiting for the day coming...

Aya has lived a lonely life without an official identity because her mother is an illegal migrant worker. When Aya becomes ill, she meets two playmates in the hospital and discovers they are also Invisible Children, incapable of growing up ...

When I first heard the word "puffer fish," I asked Dad to draw one for me. He took a piece of paper and drew a small one. In retrospect, he was like this piece of paper, always leaving me with a big, blank space.

SEA 404 is inspired by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto’s series Seascapes, and French philosopher Jean Baudrillard’s essay The Vanishing Point of Communication. It questions the contemporary condition in which the computer mediates our experience, and parallels Sugimoto’s observation that media has transformed the way we see the world. In this film, the shift from the horizon line to the world of the onlooker is underlined by the sudden entrance of everyday sounds. The soundtrack is made from field recordings taken every morning at the same time and location for thirty consecutive days.

Song of the Wanderer features a group of 'voiceless people', a part of the indigenous community in which the filmmaker resides. Due to frustrations with work, divorce, and life in general, they are often subject to isolation, emotional breakdowns, and even self-harm behaviours. The filmmaker engages them in genuine conversations, while inviting the viewer to listen to these 'voiceless people' sing: In their songs are their true feelings.

Part oral history, part reflection on a culture at risk of being erased, this documentary presents a deep dialogue between a 93-year-old Pangcah chieftain and an indigenous filmmaker. Through words and songs, hunting trips and weaving of vines, the elderly chieftain lives and embodies the ways of the Pangcah people. He also recounts his frustrated attempts in defending traditional culture against Taiwan's encroaching modernity.

Six o'clock in the morning was the time when Taiwan's executions of death row criminals was executed in the early years

Today in the 21st century, "singing" is no longer just a purely musical act. It can represent the pulse of society and put contemporary ideas into practice. To raise awareness about energy issues, we adopted a documentary-style cinematic approach to follow musicians recording an album close to nature. Eleven Meinong Conversations invites music producer and singer-songwriter Wing Lo to return to his sunny hometown of Meinong, a historic Hakka settlement in Taiwan, and fulfil a ten-year musical dream. Lo transforms a solar-powered wooden guest house into a recording studio to record his dream album in his Hakka mother tongue. The film conveys the passion of Lo’s Hakka music and his love of living life close to nature. Through eleven seemingly daily conversations with different characters, Lo’s pure and carefree rural childhood, his nostalgia of leaving home, and his loss of a beloved family member, are transformed into timeless, radiant melodies that touch the heart.

We always play as a peeping Tom and the one peeped, releasing ourselves while learning messages from others’. Therefore, we need to have a dialogue with ourselves by recalling past in the end of the journey, in order to sum up the honest self and continue moving forward alone.

protest against the government’s indifference to farmers’ rights. Some farmers clashed with the police when trying to enter for restroom. Several were arrested, leading to fiercer clashes. Protesters demanding the release of the arrested were dispersed with baton and water cannon.

Sunday, at the South-East Asian entertainment complex First Square in Taichung, two Filipinos, Jane, a domestic caregiver, and Randy, a factory worker, make acquaintance. In the precious hours of their day off, together, the two companions in foreign land spend a lovely Sunday.

The first public gay wedding in Taiwan has stirred up considerable controversy, including a local campaign to ban this film. It tells the story of Yosheng and Gary, the first gay couple to have a public wedding in Taiwan. Their wedding was held in conventional Taiwanese fashion: a wedding banquet with friends and family and even the mayor of Taipei as the promised wedding moderator.

When a middle-aged couple went to the mall, they heard the sound of the wind chime at the store and bought it. They want to feel the sound of the wind chimes in the mountains, so they left the workplace and went to the mountains to live off the grid. In nature, they hear the sound of the wind and like to share the sound of the wind chimes.

On Green Island’s Human Rights Memorial, a poem by Bo Yang mourns the mothers who wept through long nights for children imprisoned there during Taiwan’s White Terror. In Cries in the Dark, the filmmaker turns that line into family history. In 1950, their parents were arrested in the Yu Fei espionage case, convicted of rebellion, and sentenced to 13 and 10 years in prison. Their grandmother, desperate to save her newly married daughter and son-in-law, cried for help until she lost sight in one eye. Decades later, the case was officially recognized as a wrongful conviction: 34 people were implicated, four unrelated defendants were executed, and the rest received heavy sentences. Born while their mother was briefly released from prison, the filmmaker spent early childhood behind bars before being separated when she was sent to Green Island. The film records the intimate cost of political persecution across prison, family, and memory.

YouYou and Kat, two Burmese girls entering their final year of high school, are preparing for the overseas Chinese student exams that may take them from Yangon to Taiwan. Power cuts, shrill whistles, demanding exams, and teenage anxieties shape their everyday lives. Kat is driven and ambitious; YouYou is diligent, determined not to disappoint those around her. As Myanmar’s civil war quietly encroaches on the city through rumours of conscription and parental worry, the girls push themselves to maintain discipline. As the exams approach, they wonder whether studying abroad truly leads to freedom, or to another kind of uncertainty.

In a hyper-efficient, colorless society, a mysterious corporation maintains its monopoly on "vibrancy" by harvesting pigments directly from the life force of its employees. As their essence is systematically drained, individuals are reduced to mere industrial consumables for the world's aesthetics.

The story begins with the king’s mysterious Totem, drawing us into the world of the StarHerder. Through a fantastical journey, the secrets of the Totem will come to light.

In a society where thought is tightly controlled, children within the Asian education system are taught from a young age to become "perfect melons"—obedient, quiet, and indistinguishable. This experimental animation uses the metaphor of a watermelon to expose how conformity is instilled and individuality erased. It reflects on generational conditioning and questions whether we can still remain who we truly are.

Taiwanese softcore work.

In a small town, a glamorous hairdresser from Shanghai makes all the men crazy for her, and arouses the jealousy of the local women. Only a little boy notices her unknown past.

In the total darkness, the land is barren and full of potholes. Someone accidently bumps into a vending machine when wandering alone. However, the vending machine quickly ignites people’s desire for consumption.

Due to a drought that has occurred only once in a hundred years, the people of the Gaeryong and Gangho regions are plunged into misery. Upon this, Great Master Baekseong urges Geum-bung to find the Night-Glowing Pearl. Geum-bung meets Jung-yong, who was born as a dragon and was then transformed into a human, and sets off for the Gaeryong region to help him obtain the Night-Glowing Pearl and save the people. The film is a South Korean remake of a Taiwanese film titled Sea Gods and Ghosts, which this film also pilfers footage from.

Depicts a natural world in the digital age. In this world, water no longer flows in the familiar way but drifts gently like silk. The clouds in the sky emit a soft glow, reminiscent of fireflies dancing at night. The trees change their geometric forms with the seasons, displaying sharp, angular lines at times and soft, rounded curves at others.

The film crew is confused and unsure what to do. The director and the producer thus begin a game of power and manipulation in order to complete the film.

This dance film presents Siddhartha as reimagined by Lin Hwai-min and performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, directed for screen by Chang Chao-Tang. Inspired by Hesse’s novel and a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya, where the Buddha attained enlightenment, Lin created a work of stillness and elemental force. The stage is shaped by tons of golden rice grains into shifting landscapes—like rain, waterfalls, and deserts. Georgian folk songs flow through the space as dancers, carrying wooden staffs, move in slow, spiraling journeys, while a monk in white remains motionless. In the final scene, a dancer rakes the grains into vast concentric circles, forming an image of quiet intensity. Premiered in 1994, this 90-minute work is one of Lin’s key creations. Widely toured and acclaimed, it remains among Cloud Gate’s most performed works. Recorded in high definition, this 2013 version stands as the definitive edition of this landmark piece.

This dance film presents Nine Songs as reimagined by Lin Hwai-min and performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, directed for screen by Chang Chao-Tang. Drawing on ancient ritual poetry, the work evokes prayers to heaven and earth, spirits and ancestors, as well as love and mourning. Masked gods and human figures move together in a ceremonial structure, staging a timeless vision of human experience. Premiered in 1993, Nine Songs became one of Cloud Gate’s most important works. A studio fire in 2008 nearly caused the piece to be lost, but a surviving ceremonial mask remained as a trace of its legacy. This film records the production before the fire, preserving its original form. Moving across layered time and space, the choreography creates a powerful, immersive atmosphere. Through moments of wonder, grief, and ecstasy, the work unfolds toward a state of clarity and quiet transcendence.

This dance film presents Dream of the Red Chamber as reimagined by Lin Hwai-min and performed by Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan, directed for screen by Chang Chao-Tang. Inspired by the classic Chinese novel, the story centers on the fragile love between Jia Baoyu, Lin Daiyu, and Xue Baochai, set against the rise and fall of a great aristocratic family. Lin’s choreography frames the tale as a memory: a young man who has left the garden looks back on a vanished world. The Twelve Beauties appear in flowing, embroidered costumes, moving through falling flowers and shifting seasons. Classical imagery merges with contemporary dance, creating a restrained yet lyrical visual language. Premiered in 1983, the work became one of Cloud Gate’s signature productions. In 2005, Lin retired the piece as the company turned toward a more austere, introspective aesthetic. This film preserves a late-stage performance, documenting a key work from Cloud Gate’s early repertoire.

What is the origin of life? I boarded a bamboo raft, drifting into the unknown. Along the journey, the line between reality and imagination grew increasingly blurred.

In 1943, the Imperial Japanese government announced a work-study program in its colony, Taiwan, to recruit children to work in military factories. 8,419 boys came to Japan... An one-hour documentary, Shonenko reveals the unknown stories of these child laborers (Shonenko), from 12 to 14 years old, who manufactured fighter planes in Japanese Naval Arsenals during the Second World War. They left their families, homeland and childhood with the dream of receiving an education. But their dream was to be shattered - first by the war and again by cruel post-war politics in Taiwan, Japan and China.

As a long-term migrant caregiver, Fidati shapes Indonesian stories with Taiwanese paper clay. After years of separation during the pandemic, she returns to Central Java in 2024. Laughter and tears intertwine, yet family duty keeps her moving between two lands, where the taste of mangoes bridges emotions across the sea.

The director has been following the Tainan Railway Rebuilding since 2013. This film was made from footage recorded since 2016. Urban renewal is a double-edged sword. How can you redevelop an old establishment, but at the same time, still secure all the past memories? A challenge that’s worth confronting. When the buildings are dismantled, memories can only be recollected from images.

Where history's darkest secrets meet myth and magic — revealing the stolen skulls of Taiwan's Indigenous people and a woman’s awakening to her ancestral shamanic powers.

The work connects Taiwan’s first lost film from 1907 with today’s film industry struggles, exploring how history is remembered and forgotten. Through exploring this long history, the work shows a constant but hard-to-reach yearning for progress and understanding. In his films, Yao-Yi Wang blends real and imagined stories to show how people keep longing for progress, even when life feels stuck or incomplete.

Struggling to adapt to her role as a new mother, a perfectionist plastic surgeon’s alcohol addiction has revealed the extraordinary and unspoken truth about modern motherhood.

A man is punished for his crime by being exiled to a pitch-black enclosure, condemned to remain there for eternity. The isolation slowly drives him toward madness—until one day, the black walls begin to expand…

A noir action comedy about a detective trying to retrieve a missing videotape.

The film narrates the story of an innocent and naïve lady, A-Xia, who always pleases her family and friends, even if it means to work for underground syndicates for income. Even so, she constantly feels neglected. Only after a life-saving incident, she come to understand the value of her existence.