Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture launched a cultural program titled “We TAIWAN” which will open during Expo 2025 in Osaka in August. It will show the cross-field technology and energetic art creativity of Taiwanese culture to the world in four venues and four themes. Besides the live performances, Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) also curated a special program titled "The Glorious Past and Present of Taiwan Cinema,” in which ten Taiwanese classic films are featured. Reflecting the recent hot concept of “Taiwan sensibility” in Japan and Korea, these films show the fascinating cityscapes and cultural stories that cross generations. Internationally award-winning actress YANG Kuei-mei, the Golden Horse Award-winning director Laha Mebow and the director HOU Chi-jan will attend the events and screenings.
The special program of “The Glorious Past and Present of Taiwan Cinema” will be held at Osaka City Central Public Hall from 11th to 20th of August. Echoing the theme of the Expo, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives,” TFAI has selected the ten most representative Taiwanese films made between the 1960s and 2020s to lead the audiences to travel from the past to the future of Taiwan cinema. In the meantime, TFAI will also present a teaser of the brand new restoration of Tracing to Expo '70 (1970) which was produced by Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) and starring Judy ONGG set in the last Expo in Osaka in 1970. It will be shown at every screening before the features and bring us back to the Expo at the time, and the complete restored film will have its premiere in September.
➤ TFAI will present a teaser of the brand new restoration of Tracing to Expo '70 (1970) and bring us back to the Expo at the time. (Credit: TFAI)
The selected documentaries include A Morning in Taipei (1964), an experimental work by director PAI Ching-jui, who was hailed as a Taiwanese national treasure, The Mountain (1966) directed by Richard Yao-chi CHEN, which captures the youth and friendships of three young people on an excursion into the mountains in Hsinchu, and The Boat-Burning Festival (1979) by the celebrated photographer CHANG Chao-tang that reveals people’s fervent belief in the local custom through his lenses. The narrative features funnily begin with The Fantasy of Deer Warrior (1961), the one and only fairy tale film with “nature settings and animal costumes” of Taiyupian (Taiwanese-language films produced between 1956 and 1981) made in the 1960s, followed by In Our Time (1982), which represents Taiwan New Cinema, the unmissable Millennium Mambo (2001) by HOU Hsiao-hsien, which won the Technical Grand Prize at Cannes Film Festival, and director CHENG Wei-hao’s Marry My Dead Body (2022), a fantasy comedy combines traditional Chinese ghost marriage and same-sex marriage.
➤ “The Glorious Past and Present of Taiwan Cinema” special program will be held at Osaka City Central Public Hall in August in which ten Taiwanese classic films are featured. Still: “The Mountain”（1966） (Credit: TFAI)
➤ A Morning in Taipei (1964), an experimental work by director PAI Ching-jui, is among other films in “The Glorious Past and Present of Taiwan Cinema.” (Credit: TFAI)
Also among the narrative features, there will be the post-screening Q&A sessions of the Taiwanese-delicacy featured Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) which stars YANG Kuei-mei and was directed by Ang LEE, director Laha Mebow’s Golden Horse Award-winning Gaga (2022) that focuses on Taiwanese indigenous peoples and the inclusivity of multiethnic cultures and Poetries from the Bookstores: Somewhere I Belong (2025), the latest part of director HOU Chi-jan’s documentaries on the independent bookstores in Taiwan. YANG Kuei-mei, Laha Mebow and HOU Chi-jan will attend the events and screenings.
➤ Laha Mebow’s Golden Horse Award-winning Gaga (2022) focuses on Taiwanese indigenous peoples and the inclusivity of multiethnic cultures. (Credit: TFAI)
➤ YANG Kuei-mei starred in one of director Ang LEE’s Father Knows Best Trilogy, Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) (Credit: TFAI)
Arthur CHU, the chairman of TFAI, expresses, “Through the selection and screenings, we hope that not only the world could see Taiwan and get to know Taiwan but witness the outstanding output of the Taiwanese film industry as well as the restoration work accomplished by TFAI. The preservation and restoration of the audiovisual assets is a very important part of work in cultural promotion. The last step is the audiences’ viewing and participation, and we hope that more people will fall in love with the charm of Taiwanese culture.”
In total, there are 12 screenings in “The Glorious Past and Present of Taiwan Cinema,” and the events can be registered for free through We TAIWAN LINE account (ID:@we_taiwan) or by clicking on “register now” on the We TAIWAN webpage https://wetaiwan.tw/zh-TW/program/26. For more information, please go to the We TAIWAN official website at https://wetaiwan.tw/en and follow X and Instagram for the latest updates.
We TAIWAN in EXPO 2025
Event period: Saturday, August 2 to Wednesday, August 20
Event venues: online, VS. (at GRAND GREEN OSAKA), Osaka City Central Public Hall and Nakanoshima
Official website: https://wetaiwan.tw
Instagram：https://www.instagram.com/wetaiwan.tw/