Seven Taiwanese films are among more than 300 films from 75 countries to be screened at this year’s Busan International Film Festival in South Korea, which opened yesterday.
Taiwanese films are performing better each year at international film festivals and are also doing well in the film trade, said Chu Wen-ching (朱文清), head of the Ministry of Culture’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development.
Chu said his bureau has set up a Taiwan pavilion at the festival’s Asian Film Market, where 16 Taiwanese companies are expected to try to sell their films. The Asian Film Market deals with a variety of businesses in the field, from sales of copyrights, investment and production to post-production.
The bureau has also organized a Taiwan Night for Monday that is to be attended by filmmakers, actors and actresses, including Taiwanese-French actress Sandrine Pinna (張榕容) and Taiwanese model and actress Sonia Sui (隋棠).
The seven Taiwanese films to be showcased include Touch of the Light (逆光飛翔) by Chang Rong-ji (張榮吉) and Together (甜‧秘密) by Hsu Chao-jen (許肇任). Both films have been nominated for an award in the festival’s New Currents competition.
Touch of the Light, which stars Pinna, is about a girl who dreams of becoming a dancer and develops a friendship with a blind musician, while Together is about a high-school boy’s observation of people around him who are bothered by love.
Other films include Go Grand-riders (不老騎士), a feature-length documentary by Hua Tien-hau (華天灝) that tells the story of a motorcycle journey around Taiwan by 17 old men, and short film Daily Life (過站) by Chang Chia-yun (張家筠), about a warm day shared by a daughter and mother. Both of these films have been nominated in the festival’s Wide Angle competition.
Meanwhile, 10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢), a collection of 20 five-minute shorts by 20 directors on what they see as the uniqueness of Taiwan, has been selected to be screened in the Window on Asian Cinema section.
Also to be shown in this section are GF*BF (女朋友。男朋友) by Yang Ya-che about the love and friendship between three youngsters who joined the student movements in Taiwan in the 1980s, and a Taiwan-Myanmar co-production titled Poor Folk (窮人‧榴槤‧麻藥‧偷渡客) by Burmese director Midi Z (趙德胤), which depicts the lives of illegal immigrant workers from Myanmar in Thailand.
The 10-day festival is scheduled to run through Oct. 13. It opened last night with the world premiere of Hong Kong thriller Cold War which stars screen veterans Aaron Kwok (郭富城) and Tony Leung Ka-fai (梁家輝).
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
HEALTHCARE: Following a 2022 Constitutional Court ruling, Taiwanese traveling overseas for six months would no longer be able to suspend their insurance Measures allowing people to suspend National Health Insurance (NHI) services if they plan to leave the country for six months would be abolished starting Dec. 23, NHIA Director-General Shih Chung-liang (石崇良) said yesterday. The decision followed the Constitutional Court’s ruling in 2022 that the regulation was unconstitutional and that it would invalidate the regulation automatically unless the NHIA amended it to conform with the Constitution. The agency would amend the regulations to remove the articles and sections that allow the suspension of NHI services, and also introduce provisional clauses for those who suspended their NHI services before Dec. 23, Shih said. According to