The Taiwan Film Institute yesterday announced it has restored some classic Taiwanese films and they are ready to be shown in theaters across the nation.
The institute is a foundation established by the Ministry of Culture charged with restoring and promoting the nation’s film heritage.
Institute chief executive Lin Wen-chi (林文淇) said that following the 1955 end of a ban on producing movies in Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese), hundreds of movies in the language were produced every year until the end of the 1960s, when the move to color films undermined the competitiveness of independent Hoklo film producers.
The 1970s saw the emergence of romantic movies and a genre of “new wave” wuxia (martial arts, 武俠) films, which were commercially successful in eastern Asia, he said.
Time has not been kind to the older movies, which are only now beginning to be digitized and restored, Deputy Minister of Culture Joseph Chen (陳永豐) said.
He said that many films have already been lost or irreparably damaged due to poor preservation methods, adding that during Taiwan’s economic rise, discarded movie-film was often used as waterproof lining in the straw hats of factory workers.
He estimated that only 400 Hoklo films have been preserved.
Ten older films in either Holko or Mandarin have been fully digitized and restored by the institute.
The movie exhibition — set to tour the nation from next month through August — features six classic films from the 1960s and 1970s.
Films featured include Dragon Gate Inn (龍門客棧), the wuxia film that marked the beginning of the “new wave” pictures. The restored version was featured at the Cannes Film Festival last year.
The romantic drama The Young Ones (彩雲飛) — based on a novel by famous pulp-romance author Chiung Yao (瓊瑤) — similarly presaged a wave of successful romance films.
The exhibit includes Love in Chilly Spring (春寒), starring singer Feng Fei-fei (鳳飛飛), as well the three older Hoklo films: Back to Anping Harbor (回來安平港), Vengeance of the Phoenix Sisters (三鳳震武林) and The Fantasy of Deer Warrior (大俠梅花鹿).
All films feature English subtitles.
Showtimes, locations and ticket purchasing information can be found on the Web site of the Taiwan Film Institute: www.tfi.org.tw.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS