A multidimensional Taiwan
> BY CHARLIE SMITH
The 12th annual Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival will have a little more of a local flavour than usual. That’s because two Vancouverbased Taiwanese-canadian filmmakers’ movies will appear in the short program.
Lawrence Lam’s “The Blue Jet” and Vincent Lin’s “Story Unbridled” each feature Vancouver actor and former city councillor B.C. Lee, a cast member of the TV series Blood and Water. Lee is the narrator of “The Blue Jet” and has a role as the father of one of the lead characters in “Story Unbridled”. Lee will be in attendance and take questions at the screening of the six short films.
There are also 10 feature-length movies at the festival, beginning with the opening-night film, Father, by Taiwanese director Li-chou Yang. It’s a Golden Horse Award–winning documentary about traditional glove puppetry in the East Asian island nation. But there’s a distinctly modern twist: Yang will bring virtual-reality technology into the Vancity Theatre on June 22 so those in attendance can immerse themselves in this ancient art form to learn and feel what it’s like to be a puppet master.
For the directors of the Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society, another highly anticipated film is Formosa 3D, which showcases the natural wonders, cultural heritage, and folk arts and crafts of Taiwan. The director, Charlie Chu, won the 3D Creative Arts Awards International Jury Prize.
“The reason director Chu made this film is he was once diagnosed with a brain tumour,” Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society president Alodie Yen said through a translator at a news conference announcing the festival’s 10 feature films. “After losing hearing in one ear and [with] his vision declining, he insisted on creating this film to show the beauty of Taiwan.”
After receiving treatment, Chu is cancer-free and will be in attendance at the screening in New Westminster to answer questions from the audience.
All the other films at the festival will be shown at the Vancity Theatre. They include the multipleaward-winning The Great Buddha+, a black comedy depicting the different lives of rich and poor Taiwanese. Another film dealing with poverty is The Last Verse, which examines a tumultuous love affair over a 16year period.
“On the surface, this film seems like it’s about a tragic love story,” Vancouver Taiwanese Film Society spokesperson Amy Chen said at the news conference. “But when you dig deeper, it’s sociopolitical and it disguises the thoughts and emotions of the teenagers and [highlights] the role they play in shaping our economy and our society. It’s really a story that’s told from the younger generation to the older generation.”
Taiwan has a thriving Aboriginal culture, which is explored in Pakeriran by Indigenous director Lekal Sumi. This semiautobiographical film shows what happens when a youth raised in the city reconnects with his First Nation.
It wouldn’t be the Vancouver Taiwanese Film Festival if there weren’t at least one suspenseful thriller. This year’s offering is Who Killed Cock Robin?, starring Kaiser Chuang as a journalist investigating a hit-andrun accident. It also features famous Taiwanese actor and model Tiffany Ann Hsu (a.k.a. Hsu Wei-ning), who’s known throughout the Mandarin-speaking world.
Another intriguing film at the fest is A Journey of 35, which can be considered a Taiwanese version of Michael Apted’s Up series. In A Journey of 35, director Lo Yi-hsiu tracks five Taiwanese young people from very different backgrounds from the ages of 15 to 35.
Taiwan has long been a leader in Asia in embracing its LGBT community, and in this spirit, Alifu, the Prince/ss explores how love can thrive under the most unlikely circumstances.
Rounding out the festival’s films are Take Me to the Moon, a nostalgic look at 1997 Taipei, and Turn Around, which is about a famous educator, Wang Cheng-chung, who revived students’ spirits in an area struck by a devastating earthquake.
The Last Verse.