www.filmtaiwan.org
ďźƒTFFIceland
Taiwan Film Festival Iceland 冰島臺灣影展
About
FilmTaiwan announces the inauguration of the Taiwan Film Festival in Iceland and the UK. The festival celebrates Taiwan’s long and tempestuous history and diverse cultural heritage through the uncensored lens of independent Taiwanese filmmakers. An exciting programme of films will cover a broad range of topical issues that are both particular to Taiwan and also speak to a global audience - including LGBTQ rights, ethnicity, land rights, environment and politics. As the only Mandarin-speaking country in the world who promotes freedom of speech, Taiwan has a powerful voice to tell stories others cannot. Kicking off in Iceland, the festival will run from 8 – 24 March. The opening film, The Great Buddha + will be
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featured as part of the StockFish Film Festival and the rest of the programme will be screened at independent cinema Bíó Paradís and IÐNÓ. “Bringing the Taiwan Film Festival to Iceland and the UK was an obvious fit because of the strong roots of storytelling and independent filmmaking on each of these islands. Iceland’s festival programme is inspired by films which give a voice to forgotten places and people” says festival curator Aephie Chen. The festival will open with a screening of the award-winning The Great Buddha +, directed by Huang Hsin-Yao, a black comedy looking at political corruption through the eyes of two disenfranchised lonely losers. This will be followed by a Q&A with the director.
There will also be a selection of short films starting with the The Glamorous Boys of Tang - a gender-bending, surreal story which was developed from an un-filmed scene from the 1985 cult film Tang Chao Chi Li, due to the censorship laws of the time. Female director, Heather Tsui’s debut Long Time No Sea is a feel-good, family drama set in the indigenous Tao community of Taiwan’s Orchid Island. Three intricate and seemingly unrelated storylines are interwoven into one in Chen Singing’s God Man Dog, a thrilling Taiwanese drama that illustrates the conflicts between city and countryside, immigrants and indigenous people, as well as the different religions that exist on the island.
from acclaimed filmmaker Wei Te-Sheng including Warriors of Rainbow: Seediq Bale, Cape No. 7, Pusu Qhuni and KANO. Each will be followed by a filmmaker Q&A or a storytelling workshop. After the screenings in Iceland, the Taiwan Film Festival will travel to the UK in April 2019 where a second programme of independent Taiwanese films will be screened at various prestigious locations including the Curzon Soho, DocHouse at Curzon Bloomsbury, the Starr Cinema at the Tate Modern museum and an exciting pop-up VR cinema in central London where a number of virtual reality film screenings will take place.
And finally a collection of films
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Program
Ticket Info / Venue Info
Ofur Búdda + The Great Buddha Plus 大佛普拉斯 + Q&A with Dir. Huang Hsin-Yao ＊Stockfish - Film Festival & Industry Days
Bíó Paradís
Pa r ra
dí s
Bí ó Pa dí s
Bí ó ra ra Pa ó Pa ra ó Bí
Aðeins Hafið Veit Long Time No Sea 只有大海知道 Guð Maður Hundur God Man Dog 流浪神狗人
Vonarstræti 3, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland https://idnorvk.is/
Stockfish Film Festival http://stockfishfestival.is/
Buy Tickets Online https://filmtaiwan.org/taiwan-film-festival-iceland-2019/ https://tix.is/is/bioparadis/buyingflow/tickets/7590/
Hermenn Regnbogans : Seediq Bale Warriors Of Rainbow: Seediq Bale 賽德克巴萊 + Q&A with Dir. Wei Te-Sheng + Pre-screening drinks reception 6-7pm Cape No.7 海角七號 + Q&A with Dir. Wei Te-Sheng Pusu Qhuni 餘生，賽德克巴萊 + Storytelling Workshop
Ó
IÐNÓ
Bíó Paradís
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Pa Bí ó
Sun 24 4pm
ra dí
s
Sat 23 6pm
ó
Bí
P
s
dí
a ar
N
Fri 22 7.30pm
IÐ
Wed 20 7pm
dí
s
Bí
Sun 17 8pm
dí
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Fri 15 8pm
Hverfisgata 52, 101 Reykjavík, Iceland https://bioparadis.is/
IÐNÓ Stuttmyndir frá Tævan Taiwanese Short Films
Pa
Wed 13 8pm
Bí ó
Fri 8 8pm
ad ís
March
KANO + Q&A with Wri./ Prod. Wei Te-Sheng 5
Ofur Búdda + The Great Buddha Plus
Aðeins Hafið Veit Long Time No Sea
Dir. Huang Hsin-Yao 黃信堯
Dir. Tsui Heather 崔永徽
大佛普拉斯
“ I have always wanted to tell a story about some forgotten place or people in the southern Taiwan. I feel that the comical portrayal of Taiwanese people on television or in film often fail to convey the true nature of our lives. There are many laughable things in our lives, and when they are depicted in the movies, they make us laugh out loud. But somehow I feel that these laughable things actually stem from sadness. We can only look at it directly and then carry on with our lives. If we feel helpless, it may be a way of coping.”- Director Huang Hsin-Yao Pickle is a night security guard at a bronze statue factory, who also plays in a band at the funerals when time allows. Earning a meager income, Pickle lives with his elderly mother. His best friend Belly Button works as a recycling collector during the day, and Pickle’s biggest pleasure in life is
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只有大海知道
flicking through the porn magazines Belly Button collects in the small hours in the security room. Having late night snacks and watching television are an integral part of their dull lives. One day when the television is broken, their lives are changed forever. At first, they watch the footages recorded on their boss’s dash cam for fun, and soon they get addicted to peeping into the boss’s colourful private life and accidentally discover the boss’s unspeakable secret. As a result, a ridiculous chain reaction is triggered, and even the statue of Buddha, ready to be sent to the religious festival, is forced to play a role in this chaotic situation. The story involves gods, the middle-aged men’s sexual desire and the conversation between ghosts and humans. Maybe the audience will find it preposterous, but isn’t life itself a farce?
Q&A with Director Huang Hsin-Yao Taiwan Film Festival Iceland Opening Film with StockFish Film Festival 2017 | Taiwan | Black Comedy | Mandarin, Taiwanese, English | 104min
Heather Tsui's impressive debut tells an uplifting, family-friendly tale from the indigenous Tao community of Taiwan. Ethnography and entertainment are neatly mixed in Long Time No Sea, an uplifting drama set among the indigenous Tao community from Orchid Island in Taiwan. Based on life experiences of first-time feature writer-director Heather Tsui, this tale of a newbie teacher from the city who prepares students for a dance competition is sweet without ever getting sticky, and sends strong but never-didactic messages about the need to preserve traditional cultures and languages. Filmed on a South Pacific island, this film depicts a boy's courage to grow and his quest for self discovery. Raised by his grandma alone, MaNaWei lives a frugal and simple life in Orchid Island, an island located near Taiwan.
His greatest hope is to meet his absent father working in Taiwan, and have a reunion with him again. Yu Zhang-xun, a rookie teacher from Taipei, was just assigned to MaNaWei's school in Orchid Island. He felt isolated and bored, and desperately wanted to go back to Taiwan. To their surprise, they found the National Aboriginal Dance Competition is a great chance to go to Taiwan. As Yu undertook the responsibility to attend the competition, he discovered the talent of MaNaWei, and decided to do all choreography putting him as the centre of performance. However, he found out a big obstacle for the preparation: the children wouldn't want to wear their traditional thong to perform. The unexpected difficulties make the preparation even harder, and MaNaWei is also nervous if he could finally meet his father again...
2018 | Taiwan | Coming of Age | Tao, Mandarin | 97min
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Guð Maður Hundur God Man Dog
Storyteller From Taiwan
Filmmaker, Wei Te-Sheng 魏德聖
流浪神狗人
Dir. Chen Singing 陳芯宜
2008 2008 2007
Berlin International Film Festival - Tagesspiegel Readers’ Jury Award Durban International Film Festival - Best Screenplay Busan International Film Festival
A car accident involving a dog connects unlikely characters with life changing results. A hand model caught in an estranged middle-class marriage, tries to recover from the loss of her baby, but neither religion nor extramarital affairs can help her. A poor aboriginal couple resort to God to get rid of their alcohol problems, transport top-class peaches to the city and hope to reunite with their daughters. A one-legged truck driver collects abandoned deity statues hoping to be blessed with a new prosthetic. Some of them will face a surprising turn in life, others will be caught in new dilemmas. 8
2007 | Taiwan | Drama | Mandarain, Bunun | 119min
This multi-character rhapsody evokes the pluralism of community, class and religion, as well as their conflicts, in contemporary Taiwan. Contrasting values permeate the film: deities are reduced to objects worshipped to gain fortune, and expensive peaches discarded after a commercial shoot are poor people’s only source of income. Diverse characters with different social positions and life experiences, are nevertheless united as wandering minds in search of spiritual redemption amid the impermanence of life.
2017
52Hz, I love you 52赫茲我愛你, Writer/ Director
2014
KANO, Writer/ Producer
2014 2011 2011 2008 1999
Pusu Qhuni 餘生，賽德克巴萊, Producer
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (The Sun Flag) 賽德克・巴萊 上集—太陽旗, Writer/ Director
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (The Rainbow Bridge) 賽德克・巴萊 下集—彩虹橋, Writer/ Director Cape No. 7 海角七號, Writer/ Director About July 七月天, Writer/ Director
Wei Te-sheng began his career in film at a small production house. He then got a job as the grip assistant in director Edward Yang's film studio and was later promoted to assistant director for Yang's film, Mahjong. His debut feature Cape No. 7 was the highest grossing domestic Taiwanese film. It kick-started another new wave of Taiwan Cinema. Wei's films tend to explore various aspects of Taiwan's history, bringing new social values and cultural perspectives to local Taiwanese. He is now working on Taiwanese trilogy stories during the Dutch occupation in the 17th century.
Hermenn Regnbogans : Seediq Bale Warriors of Rainbow: Seediq Bale 賽德克巴萊
Cape No.7 海角七號
Wri. Dir. Wei Te-sheng 魏德聖
Wri. Dir. Wei Te-sheng 魏德聖 Wei Te-Sheng’s epic film Warriors Warriors of Rainbow: Seediq Baleof the Rainbow: Seediq Bale reclaims reclaims an extraordinary episode an extraordinary from 20th-centuryepisode history from which is 20th-century history which isBetween little-known even in Taiwan. little-known eventhe in island Taiwan.was Between 1895 and 1945, a 1895 and 1945, the island was Japanese colony inhabited not a only Japanese colony inhabited not only by the majority (Han Chinese by the majority immigrants) but(Han also Chinese by the remnants immigrants) but bywho the first remnants of the aboriginal also tribes of the aboriginal tribes who first settled the mountainous land. settled the mountainous land. In 1930 Mouna Rudo, the leader of In 1930 Mouna Rudo, thesettled leaderon of one of the Seediq tribes one of the Seediq tribes settled on and around Mount Chilai, forged a and around coalition withMount other Chilai, Seediqforged tribal a coalition with other Seediq tribal leaders and plotted a rebellion leaders and plotted a rebellion against their Japanese colonial against their Japanese masters. It was to begincolonial at a sports masters. It was to begin at a sports day meeting where the assembled day meeting where the assembled tribesmen were to attack and kill the tribesmen officials were to and attack and then kill the Japanese would Japanese officials and would then broaden to sieges on police stations broaden sieges on police and localto government officesstations in the and local government offices the region. The initial uprising tookinthe region. The initial uprising took the Japanese by surprise and was almost Japanese by surprise almost entirely successful. Butand thewas Japanese entirely successful. But the Japanese soon sent in their army to crush the soon sentusing in their army and to crush the rebellion, aircraft poison rebellion, using aircraft and poison gas. gas. Mouna Rudo knew from the start that Mouna Rudo small knewforce from of theSeediq start that the relatively the relatively small force of Seediq tribesmen stood no chance of defeating the might of Japan. But he
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and his allies were sustained by the beliefs and myths which had nourished their tribes since time immemorial. Young males in the tribes had to undergo a rite de passage to become adult men, which gave them the right to have their faces tattooed. In the tribal language, they became Seediq Bale – heroes of the tribe. Their belief was that their ancestors would lead the spirits of the Seediq Bale across a rainbow bridge to the summit of the mountain when their time came. And so, whatever the result of their uprising against Japan, they would march in victory across the rainbow bridge… The heroism and fortitude of the Seediq warriors and their womenfolk shocked even the Japanese and won them enduring respect.
Pre-screening drinks + Q&A with writer-director Wei Te-Sheng Bubble Tea will be served for this event 2012 | Taiwan | Action Epic | Seediq, Japanese, Taiwanese | 150min
In the 1940s near the end of the Japanese era of Taiwan, an unnamed teacher (Atari) dispatched to the southernmost town of Hengchun in Taiwan falls in love with a local girl with the Japanese name Kojima Tomoko (Liang). After the Surrender of Japan, the teacher is forced to return home as Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the R.O.C. On his trip home, he pens seven love letters to express his regret for leaving Kojima Tomoko, who originally planned to elope with him to Japan. More than 60 years later, Aga (Fan), a struggling young rock band singer leaves Taipei to return to his hometown of Hengchun. There, his step father (Ma), the Town Council Representative, arranges a position for him as a postman, replacing the ageing Old Mao (C. Lin), on leave after a motorcycle accident broke his leg. One day, Aga comes across an undeliverable piece of mail that was supposed to be returned to the sender in Japan; the daughter of the now deceased Japanese teacher had decided to mail the unsent love letters to Taiwan after discovering them. Aga unlawfully keeps and opens the package to discover its
contents, but the old Japanese-style address "Cape No. 7, Kōshun District, Takao Prefecture" can no longer be found. Meanwhile, a local resort hotel in nearby Kenting National Park is organizing a beach concert featuring Japanese pop singer Kousuke Atari, but Aga's step father makes use of his official position to insist that the opening band be composed of locals. Tomoko (Tanaka), an over-the-hill Mandarin-speaking Japanese fashion model dispatched to Hengchun, is assigned the difficult task of managing this hastily assembled band, led by Aga along with six other locals of rather particular backgrounds. After a frustrating trial period, Aga and Tomoko unexpectedly begin a relationship. With some assistance from hotel maid Mingchu (S. Lin), who is revealed to be Kojima Tomoko's granddaughter, Tomoko helps Aga find the rightful recipient of the seven love letters. Tomoko then tells Aga that she plans on returning to Japan after the concert because of a job offer. After returning the seven love letters, a heartbroken but determined Aga returns to the beach resort and performs a highly successful concert.
Q&A with dir. Wei Te-Sheng 2008 | Taiwan | Comedy, Romance | Mandarin, Japanese, Taiwanese | 129min
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Pusu Qhuni 餘生，賽德克巴萊
Dir. Tang Hsiang-Chu 湯湘竹 Executive Producer | Jimmy Huang, Wei Te-Sheng
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale wrapped in September 2010, but Writer/Director Wei Te-Sheng had another dream. In addition to paying tribute to the heroic deeds of the male Seediq warriors by way of the drama film, he also hoped to make a documentary about the survivors of the Wushe Incident, documenting their lives after the Incident, and how they mustered incredible courage to look beyond their past and face the future, becoming the Alan-Gluban of today. Therefore, he invited Director Tang Hsiang-Chu who was also the sound engineer for the Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale to direct the Pusu Qhuni documentary. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is a drama film in honour of the Seediq men behind the Wushe Incident and their battle for dignity. Yet it also portrays the dark side of their battle glory – how the old and the weak of Seediq chose to hang themselves to death. The subject of
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the Pusu Qhuni documentary is this group of resilient survivors, whom the Japanese forced to migrate to Kawanaka-hara-jima (Qingliu). Throughout the history of mankind, men tend to seek glory and purpose in life through combat and killing, whereas women are like mother earth, nurturing life with graceful beauty, resilient in the face of hardship. Today, the Alan-Gluban settlement is segregated, self-sufficient, teeming with vitality, and is also the most educated aboriginal tribe in Taiwan. This attests to the extraordinary will of the survivors who have rebuilt their home. The drama film and documentary seeks to remind us of our god-given right to maintain our dignity as human beings, regardless of era or civilization. The storytelling workshop, writer/director/producer Wei Te-Sheng, will discuss about how to tell the stories from multiple point of views on traumatic historical events both in fiction and non-fiction.
Screening + Storytelling Workshop with Producer Wei Te-Sheng Bubble Tea will be served for this event 2014 | Taiwan | Documentary | Seediq, Mandarin | 154min
KANO
Dir. Umin Boya 馬志翔 Producer | Wei Te-Sheng
In 1928 when Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Kagi Agriculture and Forestry Public School (a.k.a KANO, short for its Japanese name KAGI-NORIN School) was established to help develop the local agricultural potential. The KANO baseball team started out simply as a sports club to improve the students’ physique. It never occurred to the team that the arrival of Coach Kondo would completely transform them and help them leave a legacy that eventually became a legend. To every young baseball player, Koshien (Japan's high school baseball championship) is a dream palace. For a group of farmer boys like the KANO team, it was a goal far beyond their reach, but Kondo endeavored to make it possible. He gave the players extremely rigorous training and made the best use of the team’s multiethnic compostion— Japanese, Taiwanese and aboriginals—by appreciating their specific strengths.
After a year of intense training, the team was highly motivated and their determination to win got stronger even after numerous defeats. Much to everyone’s surprise, this previously unknown team finally won the local championship and proudly marched into Koshien. Playing at Koshien in front of 55,000 viewers was a dream-come-true not only for the KANO team but for Kondo as well. Facing the strongest opposing team, the KANO boys were struggling in the final game. The situation got tougher when their ace pitcher was wounded. Nonetheless the KANO boys showed true team spirit by rising to the challenge together as one. Burning their passion for baseball, these farmer boys from southern Taiwan just refused to surrender . . .
Q&A with Wri. / Producer Wei Te-Sheng 2014 | Taiwan | Sports, Drama, History | Japanese, Taiwanese | 185min
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Stuttmyndir frá Tævan The Glamorous Boys of Tang 唐朝綺麗男 Dir. Su Hui-yu 蘇匯宇
Taiwanese Short Films Blossom 繁花盛開 Dir. Lin Han 林涵
2017 | Drama | Mandarin | 25min
2018 | Art | 15min
In artist Su Hui-yu’s signature style, a moody slow-motion pan captures a wild, glitter-scattered, blood-splattered orgy during the Tang dynasty. The film is an invocation of scenes from 1985 Taiwanese cult film Tang Chao Chi Li that only existed in the screenplay, unfilmed until now due to what can only be imagined as budgetary restrictions and censorship pressures during the Martial Law era. Presented without narrative context, the orgiastic murder scene plays out like an unsettling nightmare. Su Hui-Yu has re-created The Glamorous Boys of Tang to call together the differently gendered bodies and subcultures of Taiwan's diverse society.
Arnie 阿尼
Dir. Rina B. Tsou 鄒隆娜
2016 | Drama | Filipino, Taiwanese, Mandarin | 24min
While docked at the port of Taiwan, Filipino seaman ARNIE buys a ring with the help of his mates. He plans to propose to his girlfriend back home over the internet. What was meant to be the happiest moment of his life soon takes a downward spiral when he finds out that she is pregnant - Arnie is not the father of the child. Like fish out of water, the life of migrant seamen working in Taiwan is a daily struggle... for the catch is plenty down south, but the waves are choppy and brutal. Monsoon season is here.
The Pig 豬
Dir. Chen Singing 陳芯宜
2013 | Drama | Mandarin | 21min
A life of a person is an endless search of one’s sense of belonging. What kind of family can provide a complete belonging if one can choose? In Taiwan, it is already tough for those who wants to create a family with a child of one's own due to the economic and social consensus. Not to mention for the marginalised transgendered community, there is a great revolution of equalisation that has not yet succeeded. Cherry identified herself as a drag queen. Before the show, she found out her boyfriend had been cheating sleeping with another girl for awhile. Pulled herself together she walked on her way to work, she met with an abandoned baby. When she was performing sparkly on the stage with her close sister, Lena, they discovered something weird about this baby…
In Trance We Gaze
恍惚與凝視的練習 Dir. Chen Singing 陳芯宜
2018 | Doc | Taiwanese, Mandarin | 20min
Under constant regimes of discipline and incorporation, rituals, faiths, bodies, and the position of man and god all trend towards uprootedness, where we lose our links to the land and to others. Time is dissected into ever more infinitesimal parts. Those who could not keep up appear within the gaze of a stopped frame. All destruction and rebirth meet at this point in search of a safe corner.
32 Km - 60 Years 32公里～六十年
Dir. Laha Mebow 陳潔瑤
2018 | Doc | Atayal, Mandarin | 26min
Iceland premiere
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Dawang’s home is about to be demolished. The pig he has painstakingly raised is about to become a religious offering at a Temple Fair. Meanwhile, it hasn’t rained in Taipei for ages. Dawang recalls the Buddhist fable of a benevolent king who sacrificed himself to end his city’s long drought. Dawang’s neighbor, A-Mao, a showgirl with pink hair, worries about being outcompeted by younger girls. In this parched city, two lost souls come together in a struggle for survival.
After being abandoned for nearly seven decades, the old tribal village is difficult to reach with almost no roads leading to it. The only guide on our journey in search of our roots is Wilang, who drags his octogenarian body up the mountain. As we follow Wilang’s footsteps, we travel a tunnel back in time...
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Katthveli – FilmTaiwan 貓鯨魚電影誌
Katthveli – FilmTaiwan is an online magazine inviting Taiwanese writers, artists and creators from different generations to talk about Taiwanese films from their professional points of view, creating a platform for them to connect with European film critics who can also provide other thoughts on Taiwanese films. http://www.filmtaiwan.org/magazine/
...................................................... To Win is To Believe We Won’t Lose, Wei Te-Sheng’s KANO Spirit - Feng Yien 封以恩
In 2008 while I was writing my Master’s thesis in London, people around me were constantly talking about Cape No. 7. The film, directed by Wei Te-Sheng, became a box office sensation in Taiwan; with a humble budget of NT$50 million, Cape No. 7 grossed NT$530 million. During that period, Taiwan’s film industry was struggling, experiencing a serious setback. Not only were there few domestic films being produced, but films that received help from the ministry’s Fund for Domestically Produced Motion Pictures failed to consider what audiences wanted. It was under those circumstances that Cape No. 7 found success to become the 2nd highest-grossing film in Taiwan’s cinematic history, only behind the blockbuster Titanic. The topic of my Master’s thesis focused on how the film industry develops pathways for other industries. Following the release of Cape No. 7, Kenting, where the film was shot, experienced a boost to its tourism industry, and the long-dormant postal service was revitalised owing to the importance of letters in the film. These examples reflect why the film was a perfect case study for my thesis. And so, I summoned the courage to interview Cape No. 7’s director Wei Te-Sheng and producer Jimmy Huang. Wei’s strong faith in the film impressed me the most; from the beginning, Wei never doubted the potential of Cape No. 7. Given that Taiwan’s film industry was struggling, someone with such a strong faith might be considered crazy. 16
I remember Huang told me that the original budget of Cape No. 7 was NT$5 million, but the film’s final cost reached NT$50 million. During the filming process the financial gap kept increasing. Two weeks after shooting had started, the crew were running out of cash and were even owed a couple hundred thousand dollars for meal fees. Following this, Huang asked Wei to reduce the scale of the film, but Wei insisted on making the film about love stories from two different generations happen. It proves that the audience was touched by Wei’s persistence and returned to the cinema. In fact, before the filming of Cape No. 7, Wei had been preparing for Seediq Bale, which later became his second feature film. He said that he shot Cape No. 7 so that he could make Seediq Bale happen. In 2000, the screenplay of Seediq Bale won the Excellent Film Screenplay award from the Government Information Office. Three years later Wei raised NT$2.5 million to shoot a five-minute film pilot, which he hoped would help raise more money. The fundraisin process was long and difficult. It was thanks to Huang that Wei was able to shoot Cape No. 7 first, it becoming a huge success at the box office, which then allowed Wei to begin work on Seediq Bale in October 2009.
Seediq Bale cost NT$700 million to complete. 1930s Wushe Village in Linkou, New Taipei City, was recreated for the film, on which the number of the cast and crew reached 20,000 members. Almost everyone in Taiwan’s film industry was working on the set of Seediq Bale. In retrospect, the film did not enjoy box office success, but it did facilitate the development of Taiwan’s film industry. The shooting scale created by Seediq Bale encouraged the creators of Ang Lee’s Life of Pi and John Woo’s The Crossing to film in Taiwan. Born in Tainan, Wei is Han Taiwanese by nature, but he made a film about a famous uprising in Taiwan’s aboriginal history. After Seediq Bale was released, controversies about the historical accuracy of the film arose. For example in the film, Chief Mouna Rudao shoots his family to prevent them from being humiliated by the Japanese. Descendants of the Seediq tribe believe that, according to traditional norms, their people would never shoot members of their own family. Additionally, the director had the film title registered as a trademark, which faced opposition by the Seediq people. However, there is no denying that the film brings an awareness to the Seediq tribe, which once belonged to the Atayal tribe. Besides, Wei insisted that aboriginal 17
characters in the film should be played by actors who are at least half Seediq, Atayal, or Truku. In the past, aboriginals tended to play afflicted characters or were the target of jokes. Although the director of Seediq Bale is Han Taiwanese, aboriginal people finally had an opportunity to play main characters in a film based on their own history. Some people will attempt to categorise Wei Te-Sheng’s films. For example, Cape No. 7 is pro-Japnese, Seediq Bale is anti-Japanese, and Kano, which is written and produced by Wei directed by Umin Boya, is Japanophilic. This kind of categorisation is unacceptable to me. I believe that these three films try to represent certain time periods in Taiwan’s history without offering an opinion. In Cape No. 7 a couple is forced to separate, mostly because of time and not entirely because of their nationalities. As for Seediq Bale, we can see Mouna Rudao as a person who risked his life to defend the dignity of himself and his tribe instead of viewing him as an anti-Japanese hero. Regardless of the nationalities of his enemies, he believed that the hatred between them would be gone once they were dead. On the other hand, KANO casts the boundary of nationalities aside because the only things matter 18
in a child's world is the joy that comes from teamwork and victory. Currently Wei is preparing for his “Taiwan Trilogy”, which will present Taiwan’s history during the 17th century from the viewpoints of Dutch missionaries, Han Chinese pirates, and indigenous hunters. This trilogy is Wei’s biggest dream. The scripts were finished in 2001, but it took him 17 years to reboot the project. When Wei finished the script of Seediq Bale, he asked himself where Taiwan’s history is. That’s when the idea of the “Taiwan Trilogy” emerged. This time, he hopes that the film sets will not be demolished and that he can turn them into historical amusement parks. He also refuses the support of Chinese funds because he doesn’t want viewpoints of the films to be changed. A couple of years ago, I was chatting with my colleagues after interviewing Wei. Even though Wei’s idea of a “Taiwan Trilogy” left us all speechless, we all agreed that we might have doubted the possibility of this project if these words had come from someone else’s mouth. Since they were coming from Wei, it makes people feel confident that someday they will see that the project is completed.
Student Journalist Prize
Student Journalist Prize Entries to our Student Journalist Prize will be judged by a panel of international film journalists. The winning reviews will be published on our festival website and in our festival brochure. The winning writer will be presented with their award at festival opening in April 2020, where as well as a cash prize they will have the opportunity to meet the judges and have a one-to-one career focused meeting with one of the panel. Enter at www.FilmTaiwan.org by 30th June 2019 ＃TFFIceland ＃TFFUK ＃FilmReviews ＃CashPrize ＃StudentJournalistPrize
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Credit Publisher | FilmTaiwan Festival Director/ Programme Curator | Aephie Chen Festival Associate Director | Georgina Paget Festival Coordinator | Shih-An Chen Marketing Director | Dingzhe Yi Marketing Coordinator | Grace Hsu PR | Melissa Romas Visual Design | Ting Cheng Editor | Katthveli Katthveli Magazine Chief Editor | Yenting Hsu Web Designer/ Engineer | Sora Yeh Translator | I-Ying Liu, Guo Ting Lin, Meiling Chen Printed by Dot Studio, London 2019
Support by Ministry of Culture, Taiwan Partner with Bíó Paradís, Boating Island Sponsors | Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Taiwan Film Institute Reel Taiwan, PTS (Taiwan Public Television Service) Kaohsiung Shorts, Kaohsiung Film Archive Bubble Tea by Laïzé 来座
Special Thanks to | Hrönn Sveinsdóttir Aron Víglundsson Stockfish Film Festival Marzibil Sæmundardóttir Ása Baldursdóttir Ársæll Níelsson Áslaug Baldursdóttir Steven Meyers Cheryl Lai Vanessa Chen Margret Sigurdardóttir Guðmundur Sveinn Guðmundsson Ingvar Haukur Guðmundsson Chen Singing ARS Film Wei Te-Sheng Jimmy Huang Mika Lin Yen Hsien MandarinVision Huang Hsin-Yao Desmond Yang Jill Chen Zoey Wu Swallow Wings Films Albert Yao Henry Wei Heather Tsui Joann Chiang Amanda Reinert ENLA Media