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• TFAI Picks

  TFAI Picks

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• Main Program

  The Aftertaste of Time: Ozu Yasujiro 120

    OZU Yasujiro (1903-1963) rose to fame at the Shochiku Kamata film studio and witnessed the two golden eras of Japanese cinema before and after World War II. Influenced by Ernst Lubitsch and Harold Lloyd, he specialized in silent comedy and realist working-class drama in his early career, and later focused on middle-class family settings with his consistent style of low-angle camera, contemplative pacing, and precise composition. This "tofu-maker" who humbly claimed he made only one type of film, often reworked similar plots and characters throughout his career. However, he was able to exhibit different sensibilities and extract the rich, nuanced flavors of daily life in post-war Japan. Western scholars have used terms such as "mono no aware" and "zen" to describe how Ozu embodies Japanese aesthetics, and how his poignant use of "pillow shots" evokes lasting emotions that permeate across scenes. This retrospective features eight new restorations of Ozu's post-war films, including the timeless "Noriko Trilogy" and other lesser-known gems that portray marginalized people and prohibited desires rarely seen in the master's creations. Since Ozu's passing, directors of different countries and generations have repeatedly paid tribute to Ozu in their films. Through selecting these works, this program also explores the enduring reverberations of Ozu's influence on world cinema.   ※ Special Thanks: SPOT-Taipei ( Taipei Film House )  
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• Special Focus

  Virtual Reality: The Man Who Couldn't Leave

  Date｜05.06-06.18  FRI-SUN／06.21-07.02  WED-SUN Venue｜ 1st Floor Lobby, TFAI   Optional Chinese or English subtitles are provided for each VR screening, which takes place hourly during the opening days. For screening schedule and ticket info, please visit TFAI’s official website or www.opentix.life/o/tfai.   The Man Who Couldn't Leave 陳芯宜 Singing CHEN｜臺灣 Taiwan ｜2022｜VR360｜Color｜35min   2022 Best Experience of Venice Immersive, Venice FF   Within the walls of the former Green Island prison, political detainee A-Kuen, tells the stories of imprisonment and persecution in the 1950s. Among fellow inmates, frozen in time, he recounts his own experiences and those of his friend, A-Ching, who never made it out. Experience the time and place, and the waiting, in hope, for a chance to keep the stories alive.   The Man Who Couldn’t Leave integrates the stories of numerous political victims of the White Terror and told through the form of an undelivered family letter. An immersive VR experience of hope, fear and camaraderie.
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• Main Program

  Erotic Wonders: MASUMURA YASUZO

  Post-war Japan cinema giant Masumura Yasuzo (1924-1986), daring in expression, has directed over 50 films during his career. The Japanese New Wave pioneer is especially renowned for his adaptations of literature and portrayal of the feminine world, as represented by five of his iconic selections from 1958-1969 in this mini-retrospective.   Having studied in Italy and influenced by western ideology, Masumura exposes the individualism and freedom prohibited by Japanese society with profound cinematic narration. His erotic universe often centers around women who express their desires without shame, accompanied by a series of captivating paradoxes, revealing the sincerest sentiments within.   Hong Kong International Film Festival has paid homage to Masumura with the "Sensual Provocateur" retrospective, which highlighted his contributions to Japan cinema history with erotic films. Following the "The Lustful World: Masumura Yasuzo" in Kaohsiung Film Archive, the visions of the Maestro will make its appearance at TFAI for an experience of eros and lust.    Film Synopses by Ryan CHENG Special Thanks: Kaohsiung Film Archive
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• Special Focus

  The Best of Taichung International Animation Festival

  In Special Focus this month, TFAI observes humans and where they come from with an international selection of 16 award-winning animated shorts from Taichung International Animation Festival (TIAF), divided into 2 compilations "Global Scope" and "Life Goes Round n' Round."  The virtual world of animation is the reflection of reality. Every frame is a close-up of the interactions between people, countries and our hearts. "Life Goes Round n' Round" puts our faith to the test against all the beloved souls that come and go, only to find that peace lies within our hearts. Then there’s "Global Scope" which questions how much genuinity exists in our modern life, while focusing on how the various creatures of the earth struggle to break out from predicament.      Collaboration with Taichung International Animation Festival, Taichung Film Development Foundation
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• Main Program

  A Wang Toon Retrospective: Scenes in Historical Wilderness

  Wang Toon was born Wang Zhonghe in 1942 in China's Anhui province. In the early 1980s, he transitioned from a production designer to film director, winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film with his debut feature, If I Were for Real (1981). His film career spans over 50 years, and includes directing 15 narrative features. His realistic style and down-to-earth subject matter helped usher in a brand-new look to Taiwanese films in the 1980s along with other Taiwanese New Wave stalwarts such as Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Chen Kun-hou and Wan Jen, together penning an important page in the history of Taiwanese cinema. In 2019, he received the Golden Horse Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions.   Artistic Journey Wang Toon learned to draw from a young age and grew up in the 1960s era when artistic concepts were changing. After graduating from the Department of Fine Arts of National Taiwan Academy of Arts, he joined the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC). Starting as a trainee, he studied production design through extensive practical experience and continuously polished his skills in set dressing, set design, and costume design. He worked as a production designer for more than a decade, developing sound filmmaking fundamentals through collaborating with and learning from major directors such as Li Han-hsiang, Lee Hsing, King Hu, Pai Ching-jui, and Chen Yao-chi. CMPC's international co-productions also gave Wang Toon a different perspective on cinema. These techniques and nutrients inherited from the studio's industrial system often gave Wang Toon's films highly appealing visual designs.   Writing History Through Images Most of Wang Toon's films are closely tied to history. Some came about by chance, as the early films he was commissioned to direct were imbued with a thick historical atmosphere. Others were driven by a strong sense of mission, as he wholeheartedly wanted to document Taiwan's history through film. Accordingly, his films after the lift of martial law were not only related directly to Taiwan's historical experiences, but also integrated the memories of displacement from his own life. Facing the disappearance of history is like being in a wasteland. Recreating life in the past from scratch is often a big challenge for filmmakers. Wang Toon's solid art background, however, makes handling such subject matter seem easy. From set design, costumes to even action choreography, he infuses details and textures into his visuals, creating images that may become important memories in the lives of his viewers; like some kind of magical moment, they are no longer easily forgotten.   From Set to Scene   Wang Toon pursues truth but is not limited to realism. He understands that production design does not exist purely for aesthetics, and is not just to create an objective material world. What he hopes to create is a film space that integrates theater but still maintains authenticity. With scene after scene that can stir the audiences' emotions and leave lasting impressions, his films always tend to carry a thick earthy flavor. Of course, this is also due to Wang Toon's strong feelings toward this land, as well as the compassion and empathy he has for the little people we see in everyday life. Ultimately, production design has to give way to people — the little people struggling at the bottom of society in pitiful or absurd situations, yet still strive to preserve their dignity or hope in life.   This retrospective features a selection of nine WANG Toon films with historical themes. In addition to his classic "Contemporary Taiwan Trilogy”, there is the rare Taiwanese-language version of A Flower in the Raining Night (1983) and the wuxia film Run Away (1984). Tracing back to his filmmaking origins, there is also his early adaptation of the scar literature play If I Were for Real (1981), Portrait of a Fanatic (1982), and a special presentation of All the King's Men (1983), for which he worked as the production designer. Travel back to the context of Wang Toon's era and rediscover this epoch-making Taiwanese filmmaker.   ※Cover photo credit to Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee
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• Special Focus

  Compound Eyes of Tropical + Selected Works by Zhang Xu Zhan

  Born into a family of joss paper artisans in Xinzhuang, the winner of Golden Horse Awards Best Animated Short Zhang Xu Zhan established Hsin Hsin Joss Paper Store to promote Taiwan’s paper offering craft and culture education. Zhang Xu specializes in expressing art with animation, playing with cinema, experimental shorts, video installations, multi-channel projections and sculptures. With an eccentric style, Zhang Xu incorporates contemporary life experiences to discuss the complications of existence, focusing on personal observations of how paper offering legacies and craft stand in society and culture. At TFAI this month, the compound universe of Zhang Xu’s complete shorts will be presented on the silver screen,  and all screenings will be followed by a session with the director.   ▍Film Festival Info ▍ ・Date：2023/04/07（FRI）—2023/04/28（FRI）・Venue：Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute   ▍Ticketing ▍ General: NTD 120/Ticket- TFAI Member or Student: NTD 120/Ticket- Child or Senior Citizen: NTD 110/Ticket- Person with Disability:Free tickets available on request at the Info Desk.
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• Special Focus

  The 60th Anniversary of Two "Butterfly Lovers" Films: Sam-phik-Ing-tâi vs. The Love Eterne

  In 1963, Taiwanese Opera troupe Bí-too invested fortunes to remake its own 1959 film production of the classic Chinese legend Butterfly Lovers. Shot in 35mm color film and printed at UK's Rank Organization, Sam-phik-Ing-tâi is a rare gem incorporating special effect shots and state-of-the-art technologies first seen in Taiwanese-language cinema.However, the release of Shaw Brothers' Mandarin version of the same tale, The Love Eterne, was deliberately moved up to April 24, the same date where Sam-phik-Ing-tâi was set to come out. The Love Eterne became a phenomenal success with its lavish production scale and aggressive campaign, leading to a record-breaking 62-day consecutive theatrical run. Sam-phik-Ing-tâi, in stark contrast, was in theaters for only a week. Nevertheless, the gumption of Taiwanese-language filmmakers and investors who attempted to break into the color film market was still commendable.On occasion of the 60th anniversary of this "twin film" spectacle, TFAI presents Sam-phik-Ing-tâi, a new restoration based on rare video materials, along with the digitized The Love Eterne, contrasting the distinct styles and parallel success of both Taiwanese Opera and Huangmei Opera cinemas.   ▍Screening Info ▍ Date：2023/04/22（SAT）—2023/05/13（SAT）   ▍Ticketing ▍ Free tickets available at the counter from one hour prior to each screening. Pre-screening Introduction at 14:00, April 22.
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• Talks

  TFAI：The Pionners

  TFAI launches regular talks inviting stars and professionals of film, TV, and radio to come share their fascinating stories on and off screen. The talks will surely become precious memories of our era.  
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• Events

  TFAI 45th Anniversary

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• Film Series/Talks

  Motion & Image: Five Film Conversations with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre

  Evolved from Western traditional dance, Cloud Gate Dance Theatre represents the humanity that lies within Taiwan's past and present portrayed through dance movement, becoming the nation's highest standard of performance art. Since the 1990s, LIN Hwai-min continues to explore the profundity of Eastern life philosophy, using the mind and body to create phenomenal visual and sound, infused with cross-cultural aesthetics inspired by voyages around Asia.   TFAI collaborates with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre for its 50th Anniversary, selecting 5 Asian films to parallel the diverse trajectories danced by Cloud Gate and to inspire conversations of dance and moving images. Cloud Gate takes the audience down memory lane with 5 masterpieces created by choreographers LIN Hwai-min and CHENG Tsung-lung. LIN's Songs of the Wanderers and Moon Water both paint serene pictures with iconic elements of the earth. Formosa is a powerful performance decoding our era of information overload with dance and written characters. CHENG transforms Taiwanese folk art into the worldly and carnivalesque 13 TONGUES while reflecting on nature with Sounding Light.   TFAI has selected Satyajit Ray's The World of Apu and contemporary works by ground-breaking directors Lee Chang-dong, Masao, Takamine Go and Tsai Ming-liang, all of whom interrogate various issues of life and art with their unique aesthetics. The program is an attempt to echo Cloud Gate's explorations of society and art over the past 5 decades, inviting the audience to a close-up of the endless possibilities brought forward by an interaction of dance and cinema.   Co-curator | YEN Hung-ya   ▍Film Festival Info ▍ ・Date：2023/03/04（SAT）—2023/04/02（SUN）・Venue：Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute   ▍Corresponding Flims ▍ Songs of the Wanderers × The World of Apu (Apur Sansar)Moon Water × PoetryFormosa × UntamagiruSounding Light × Your Face13 TONGUES × Artist of Fasting   ▍Ticketing ▍ General: NTD 220/Ticket- TFAI Member or Student: NTD 180/Ticket- Child or Senior Citizen: NTD 110/Ticket- Combo Tickets: NTD 300 for selecting any two films in the Main Program,including 1 Cloud Gate Dance Theatre film and 1 corresponding film.- Person with Disability:Free tickets available on request at the Info Desk. ▍Talks ▍ For more information, please click here.
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• Film Series

  Weaving Image: Laha Mebow's Indigenous Cinema

  Laha Mebow, the first indigenous female director in Taiwan and a proud Atayal, has broken ceiling after ceiling since her directorial debut in 2011, Finding Sayun. After graduating with a film degree, she started off at entry-level positions on film sets and has worked with renowned directors such as Tsai Ming-liang and Chang Tso-chi. It was not until she joined Taiwan Indigenous Television at 30 that she started to learn about her heritage and reclaim her indigenous identity.Her sophomore feature film Lokah Laqi (a.k.a. Hang in There, Kids!) in 2016, a coming of age tale about indigenous children growing up in a remote township, has solidified her status after it won the Grand Prize and Best Director at Taipei Film Awards 2016. In 2022, she garnered the Best Director award for her latest feature film GAGA at the Golden Horse Awards, becoming both the first woman and the first indigenous filmmaker to receive this honor. Both a fiction and documentary director, she regularly works with non-professional actors and approaches her subjects with observant naturalism. Her stories often revolve around the concept of “home”, whether it represents the roots of her culture tainted by its colonial past, or the tribal families struggling with poverty and social alienation.Weaving is considered a required skill for Atayal women when they reach adulthood. Laha says although she cannot pass on her people's traditions through weaving, she can do so through the medium of film. With this retrospective, TFAI hopes to shine light on this unique and resilient artist and her filmography dedicated to indigenous voices. Laha Mebow Retrospective Ticket Info ◎ General: NTD 220/Ticket ◎ TFAI Member or Student: NTD 180/Ticket ◎ Child or Senior Citizen: NTD 110/Ticket ◎ Person with Disability: Free tickets available on request at the Info Desk
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