Those who have already seen the movie Formosa Betrayed, which is scheduled for release in Taiwan on Friday, may have noticed that the actors’ accents, the locales and many of the characters didn’t look or sound “authentic.” The reason for this is very simple: The Taiwan scenes weren’t filmed here, but in Thailand.
However, the decision to shoot there, rather than where the political thriller is set, wasn’t entirely in the hands of the producers. In an interview with the Taipei Times in Taipei on Thursday, Will Tiao (刁毓能), one of the main actors and the producer of the film, suggested politics played a big part.
“What most people don’t know is that we came to Taiwan, we had casting sessions here and we wanted Taiwanese actors,” said Tiao, a Taiwanese-American.
However, the shadow of the giant market next door weighed heavily.
“A number of performers didn’t want to do this because they were afraid of what this would do to their careers in China,” he said. “We interviewed a number of actors and later would hear through their agent: ‘We read the script and we decided no, we’re not doing it.’”
Another issue with the Taiwanese performers who auditioned was that as the movie is primarily in English. Many of the actors weren’t fluent enough.
Those, however, were not the main reasons why the film wasn’t shot here.
The movie studio had turned to the National Development Fund (NDF), a Cabinet agency, for funding, a process that started in 2007, one year before shooting began and when Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) of the Democratic Progressive Party was still in power.
While the NT$1 trillion (US$30 billion) fund mostly finances high-tech companies, it is also known to have provided assistance to the arts. In 2008, it provided US$2.6 million for Hou Hsiao-hsien’s (侯孝賢) martial arts movie The Assassin.
While in Taiwan, studio representatives, including Tiao, gave a closed-door presentation to the NDF. At that point, a little more than US$5 million had been raised for the production.
The goal was to make the movie for US$10 million, the only way a period piece set on two continents, with potentially costly scenes, could be done in Taiwan, where costs were higher than in Thailand. The producers’ hope was that the NDF would almost match the money already raised.
“We were tentatively approved,” Tiao said. “We were very excited about the fact that we would be able to shoot in Taiwan.”
However, while studio representatives were in Thailand, which they had included as a backup, they learned that although the proceedings of the NDF presentation were supposedly confidential, a staffer who was present had contacted a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator and “told him what had happened in the room.”
The KMT legislator, whose identity Tiao would not reveal, then allegedly contacted the Chinese-language United Daily News, which printed a story about the movie and the application with the NDF.
How the fund uses its money must be approved by the legislature, which back then, as now, was controlled by the KMT.
“When we came back to Taiwan after scouting in Thailand, we were told flat out that our budget was being held,” Tiao said.
Without that money, Taiwan no longer was an option.
“A lot of people ask us why didn’t we shoot Formosa Betrayed in Taiwan ... The decision was made for us, it wasn’t something that we wanted,” he said. “We wanted to shoot here, but we basically were forced to go to Thailand.”
A full interview with Tiao will be published on Monday.
People can take the Taipei MRT free of charge if they access it at Nanjing Sanmin Station or Taipei Arena Station on the Green Line between 12am and 6am on Jan. 1, the Taipei Department of Transportation said on Friday, outlining its plans to ease crowding during New Year’s events in the capital. More than 200,000 people are expected to attend New Year’s Eve events in Taipei, with singer A-mei (張惠妹) performing at the Taipei Dome and the city government’s New Year’s Eve party at Taipei City Hall Plaza, the department said. As people have tended to use the MRT’s Blue or
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
Taipei is participating in Osaka’s Festival of Lights this year, with a 3m-tall bubble tea light installation symbolizing Taiwan’s bubble tea culture. The installation is designed as a bubble tea cup and features illustrations of Taipei’s iconic landmarks, such as Taipei 101, the Red House and North Gate, as well as soup dumplings and the matchmaking deity the Old Man Under the Moon (月下老人), affectionately known as Yue Lao (月老). Taipei and Osaka have collaborated closely on tourism and culture since Taipei first participated in the festival in 2018, the Taipei City Department of Information and Tourism said. In February, Osaka represented
Taiwanese professional baseball should update sports stadiums and boost engagement to enhance fans’ experience, Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) commissioner Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) in an interview on Friday. The league has urged Farglory Group and the Taipei City Government to improve the Taipei Dome’s outdated equipment, including relatively rudimentary television and sound systems, and poor technology, he said. The Tokyo Dome has markedly better television and sound systems, despite being 30 years old, because its managers continually upgraded its equipment, Tsai said. In contrast, the Taipei Dome lacked even a room for referees
RSS