Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and New Taiwanese Cinema. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004. Yin Lichuan (born 1973), female director. All Rights Reserved. Similarly, Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day won several awards at international film festivals upon its release in 1991. In many respects, Taiwan, or the Republic of China, is a country that doesn’t carry much weight. Instead of featuring frequent cuts, scenes are often shot as long takes. It will conclude with some suggestions for where to start with these films. 2715 North Charles StreetBaltimore, Maryland, USA 21218, +1 (410) 516-6989 Taipei Story, Terrorizers, Vive L’Amour). Part I of this collection discusses Wei’s films through lens of cinephilia and by addressing discourses of international film festivals. One can think of New Taiwanese films’ lack of narrative as one way in which they sought to distinguish themselves from their Hollywood and Hong Kong counterparts. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013. Some use them to refer to only the films of directors like Hou and Yang, while others use them to specifically reference the films that Hou and Yang made in the years before the publication of the Taiwan Cinema Manifesto [more on that below]. The Puppetmaster), in fact, the camera remains completely still during a majority of the scenes. Stylistically speaking, New Taiwanese films tend to have what you could call an austere appearance. He grew up in the Fengshan section of Kaohsiung. ( Log Out / It wasn’t long before the two became internationally acclaimed auteurs, often compared to post-war Italian directors such as Antonioni and Rossellini. In the 1960s and 1970s, King Hu, a notable wuxia director, made several of his best-known works (e.g. But while a Hollywood film would have turned this incident into the subject of a suspenseful thriller, A Brighter Summer Day treats it as a mere afterthought. alienation) that would go on to characterize the movement as a whole. As with these films’ lack of narrative, this austere style counters the aesthetic of commercial films from Hollywood or Hong Kong, which even now tend to feature fast editing, omnipresent background music, and fairly mobile cameras. Have you seen any New Taiwanese films? Today, the work of cinematic auteurs associated with the first and second waves of TNC continues to attract accolades at prestigious film festivals. Among many other things, you could say that this emphasis on rectilinear interiors serves two purposes. The Taiwanese Cinema industry underwent a transformation in the 1980s in response to the burgeoning popularity of Hong Kong cinema. Lastly, when it comes to their score, New Taiwanese films use non-diegetic music in a much more selective manner than mainstream films. During this period he also directed the television plays What the Grass Says to the Wind and Teenager? However, because of a disagreement with the producer he refused to have his name appear as director. Can we claim that post-New Cinema embodies the legacies of TNC, or does it demonstrate their complete rupture? 2002. In each case, however, the narrative context makes these objects’ presence seem somewhat ironic, suggesting that their stateliness belies the harsh, gruesome reality of daily life under the KMT. One may argue that the resurrection of suppressed colonial memories and the recasting of Japanese figures in a positive light demonstrates Wei’s active participation in the revision of Taiwanese historiography. Therefore, these two films make an extremely positive contribution to the representation of Taiwan’s indigenous people, in terms of story and production, as well as their part in Taiwan’s history. He entered the film field by working as a script-holder, director’s assistant, and assistant director: He was a director’s assistant on Yu Kanping’s People Between Two Chinas and Yim Ho and Tsui Hark’s King of Chess, and assistant director on Hou Hsiao Hsien’s City of Sadness, Yu Kanping’s Two Painters, and Huang Yushan’s Peony Bird. Cape No.7, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (dir. Taiwan Film Directors: A Treasure Island. HOU Hsiao Hsien ( ) Hou Hsiao Hsien was born in 1948 in Dongmei County, Guangdong Province, and moved from mainland China to Taiwan a year later. In 1982 The Green, Green Grass of Home, which he wrote and directed, was nominated for Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards. In surveys, moreover, critics continue to rank the works of these directors as some of the finest ever made. An introduction to the youthful, modernist, and engaged films by Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and others who re-invented Taiwanese cinema. In 1989, for instance, Hou’s A City of Sadness won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, and four years later, his film The Puppetmaster also won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. However you go about watching New Taiwanese films, you’d be well advised to start with something other than Tsai’s films. Wei’s films provoke a rich reflection on modern Taiwan—just as the first wave of TNC did in the 1980s—and generate a wide spectrum of political readings. Finally, New Taiwanese films usually don’t include many close-ups of characters’ faces. Among many other things, the CMPC was well known for bankrolling so-called “Chiung Yao movies” – namely, melodramas based on the novels of the eponymous Taiwanese author – and “healthy realist” films, which offered sentimentalized depictions of poverty and interpersonal conflict. After completing his military service at 22 in 1969, he entered the Film Department of the National Academy of Arts. Some have argued that by foregrounding urban environments in their films, New Taiwanese directors were trying to grapple with the effects of this accelerated urbanization, particularly its impact on understandings of the relationship between people and space. Shots in these films are filled with concrete, apparently impressive reminders of the ruling KMT’s existence, like official portraits of longtime president Chiang Kai-shek (A Brighter Summer Day) and solemn KMT radio broadcasts (A City of Sadness). Edward Yang. This film used the local “Ba Jia Jiang” folk ritual to depict the marginal lives of Appendix: Filmmakers and Films 162 Appendix people living among the working class. In 1989 City of Sadness won the Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival and Hou’s name was made. Nottingham Moreover, how do these new Taiwan-based filmmakers maintain their presence on the international film festival circuit, and are their films reaching global audiences? Without doubt, Wei Te-sheng is one of the most interesting and innovative post-New Cinema film directors working in Taiwan today. Taiwan New Cinema (TNC) is a cinematic movement that emerged in the 1980s just as democracy was introduced to the island. Ying Liang (born 1976), independent film director. Contrary to what its political and economic impotence might suggest, however, there is one area in which Taiwan has played a hugely important role: cinema. (A note on terminology: phrases like “New Taiwanese Cinema” and the “Taiwanese New Wave” can refer to several different things. In the 1980s, the KMT lifted restrictions on trade and foreign investment, a decision that accelerated the pace of globalization – and, by extension, urbanization as well – in Taiwan. DGA-Studio Directing Fellowships: Worth Your Time? We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. In the manifesto, the 54 New Taiwanese filmmakers expressed three major concerns. The newest directors, to the greatest. For the first 20 years, only the Japanese made documentaries and feature films. Wei’s post-millennium films push beyond the TNC and construct an ambivalent rapport between the Taiwanese characters and their Japanese colonisers. In Tsai’s Rebels of the Neon God and Vive L’Amour, for instance, there are many long shots in which the characters are simply shown wandering or driving through parts of downtown Taipei.