Chinese director Wang Quanan's (王全安) movie Apart Together kicked off the Berlin Film Festival Thursday last week, but Taiwanese movies have also been garnering attention with varied storylines and unique settings.
The three Taiwanese films screened at the festival were praised by festival director Dieter Kosslick when he met Chen Chih-kuan (陳志寬), head of the Department of Motion Pictures at the Government Information Office, on Thursday. He said that Taiwanese films had performed extremely well at the festival and commended the government for its film subsidy programs.
The subsidies would also help attract overseas talent to Taiwan, Kosslick said.
Tickets to the gangster movie Monga (艋舺), along with the features One Day (有一天) and Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), have been in heavy demand.
Monga, directed by Doze Niu (鈕承澤) and starring Mark Chao (趙又廷) and Ethan Ruan (阮經天), has broken domestic box office records. It grossed more than NT$200 million (US$6.2 million) during its first two weeks of release, entitling its producers to hefty government incentives.
Reviewing the film in Berlin, Variety magazine said the film was “the kind of larger-drawn movie that Taiwan should be attempting if its industry is ever to get back on its feet again.”
This wasn't the first time that Taiwanese films have received recognition at the festival.
Taiwanese directors Ang Lee (李安) and Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) have both previously received awards in Berlin.
Taiwanese movies such as Tsai's The Wayward Cloud (天邊一朵雲), God Man Dog (流浪神狗人) by Singing Chen (陳芯宜), Soul of a Demon (蝴蝶) by Chang Tso-chi (張作驥), Drifting Flowers (漂浪青春) by Zero Chou (周美玲), Yang Yang (陽陽) by Cheng Yu-chieh (鄭有傑) and Miao Miao (渺渺) by Cheng Hsiao-tse (程孝澤) have all screened at Berlin in past years.
Based on Taiwan's achievements in film, Kosslick expressed optimism for the future development of the local industry.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
RSS