Taiwan Cinema

A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien

When personal films started being made in Taiwan in the early 80-ies, few expected them to permanently change the world cinematography. Perhaps the most prominent filmmaker of that era is screenwriter and most of all director Hou Hsiao-hsien. His early films dealt with historical themes confronting the island's turbulent history with stories of ordinary people. The intimity of these films together with their masterful cinematic form fascinated Western Europe. At Filmasia, this period is represented by A City of Sadness (1989) awarded with the Golden Lion at the Venice festival. In 2001, the director shocked Cannes with his Millenium Mambo not only because of its harshly contemporary story, but also with its cinematic treatment. Departure from the traditional themes can also be seen in the filmmaker's most recent pictures Café Lumi?re (2003) and Three Times (2005). Both testify to the author's extraordinary vitality, ability to come up with an original visual approach and his rank among today's elite filmmakers.

"New Taiwan Cinema"

Most smaller regional cinematographies manage to once in a while captivate the world with outstanding films and film-making personalities. However, such illustrious period tends to quickly fade off and the particular national cinematography subsequently suffers a painful hangover. Taiwan is an exception as its "New Wave" often dubbed :New Taiwanese Film" remained on its peak for almost 20 years and among directors yielded several strong personalities. This section introduces early works by all key authors of the Taiwanese cinematographic miracle. The oldest films featured are The Sandwich Man (1983) and Summer at Grandpa's (1984) by Hou Hsiao-hsien and Terrorizers (1986) by Edward Yang.

The second generation of directors of this period is represented by Tsai Ming-Liang with his debut Rebels of the Neon God (1992), Ang Lee with his debut Pushing Hands (1992) and Stan Lai with The Peach Blossom Land (1992). Among other films, this selection also includes the cult kung-fu feature Dragon Inn (1967) parts of which are often used be the above filmmakers in their own works. Similar to other regional "New Waves", the Taiwanese surge fascinates with its human approach to the often grim everyday reality of life in the modern era.

Contemporary Taiwanese Cinema

After the boom of independent and personal filmmaking of the 80-ies and the 90-ies, Taiwan saw a rise of genre cinematography typical to the entire East Asia. Its extraordinary popularity led to rapid commercialization of Taiwanese cinematography and brought forth the youngest generation of directors who learned their trade making music videos, TV series or designing marketing strategies. However, even their films reflect the turbulent history of the island and the cult of personal-style directors.

Moreover, these up-and-coming directors succeed in attracting audiences to such extent that their films defeat Hollywood production at the box office not only in Taiwan but even in other countries. They manage to achieve such success even with movies whose hero is a young, naive homosexual (Formula 17), a traditional, nevertheless breathtaking horror (Heirloom) or a friendly, female film dealing with the caveats of the modern world (Blue Cha Cha). Contemporary Taiwanese film gives a very professional impression and offers a strong emotional and artistic experience.

Documentaries and Student Films

Taiwan, too, is witnessing modernization and a renaissance of documentaries. Whilse in the decades before, most directors used to concentrate on feature films, the 90-ies brought a generation of documentary filmmakers who open new windows into various specific aspects of life on the island. They mostly turn their attention to the countryside which preserves a certain social identity and where traces of the original Taiwanese culture can still be found. It is a culture radically influenced by the political events in mainland China in the 20th century and the subsequent transition to a liberal economical system and a culture the Taiwanese filmmakers have only recently started paying attention to.

The Taipei National University of Arts is a school similar to the Czech FAMU in the sense that most successful local filmmakers are its graduates. Filmasia offers a collection of student films which have already earned success at international festivals and whose authors represent the creative potential which will change the face of Taiwanese cinematography in the years to come.