Su I-hsuan (蘇奕瑄), Taiwanese director of Who’ll Stop the Rain (青春並不溫柔), said the aim of her queer film which screened on Saturday as the closing movie at this year’s Melbourne Taiwan Film Festival (MTFF) is to showcase Taiwan’s openness.
The film follows the story of two girls falling in love while involved in a student strike for freedom of expression, inspired by true events that took place at a Taipei university in 1994.
At the question-and-answer session after the screening, Su said she began developing the idea for the film and researching in 2014 while participating in the Sunflower movement.
Photo: CNA
This resulted in the first draft of the script in 2015, which centered on the protests, Su said.
She said she was able to distance herself from the events, as she continued to develop the script after 2018.
Following Taiwan’s legalization of same-sex marriage in 2019, she also changed the original pessimistic ending of the film, to give it a more contemporary feeling, Su said.
She had initially worried about the acceptance of the subject matter by investors due to the “China factor,” Su said.
Still, she thought it was ridiculous to self-censor while making a film about freedom of expression, so she continued, she added.
Su said there had been few queer films in Taiwan before 2019, so she hoped her movie could show the world that the nation can make such films, adding that she is from the most democratic and open country in Asia and of the Chinese-speaking nations.
Emotions and love are common among people regardless of their nationality or sexual orientation, Su said.
Many audience members expressed their love for the film after its Australian premiere, which was in February at the 31st Mardi Gras Film Festival, a queer film festival, in Sydney.
Su at the premiere said that the film’s English title is taken from an anti-war song by US rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival and that the rain symbolizes society and the establishment, also echoing the rainy season in which the events occurred.
The two other films screened at MTFF were Trouble Girl (小曉), directed by Chin Chia-hua (靳家驊) and Lokah Laqi (只要我長大), directed by Laha Mebow, according to the festival’s official Facebook page.
The MTFF, held for the third time from Thursday to Saturday last week, was established by the Australasian Taiwan Studies Association, which is dedicated to promoting Taiwan studies and culture in Australia.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS