[Review] Winds of September

The boys of Winds of September.

Produced by Eric Tsang and Hong Kong-based Big Pictures Limited, Winds of September - The Taiwan Chapter is the first of three films from three different Asian countries, each telling the same basic story of youth and friendship, and how good intentions can't stop the inevitable, sometimes tragic end of innocence. Director Tom Lin Shu-Yu (Parachute Kids) is the originator of this concept, as all three films are based off his original script, which follows one year in the school lives of seven boys as they come to grips with change and conflict within their ranks. The Taiwan Chapter takes place specifically in 1997 in suburban Hsinchu, a medium-sized city south of Taipei, at the peak of the Chinese Professional Baseball League's popularity. At the time, the fledgling professional sports league was beset by a game-fixing scandal, mirroring the disillusionment and loss of hope felt by the young boys muddling through their quietly desperate lives.

Tang (Chang Chieh) is one of seven friends of varying high school years. Collectively, the group is known as a bunch of troublemakers, though some of the gang are worse than others. The charismatic assumed leader is Yen (Rhydian Vaughan), a handsome playboy whose prim girlfriend Yun (Jennifer Chu) has to put up with incessant stories of his infidelity. The problem reaches a tipping point when Yen sleeps with another girl and her angry boyfriend comes calling. Tang is mistaken for Yen and assaulted in his place, and the incident ultimately drives a minor wedge in the group. The situation is exacerbated by the other boys' individual conflicts and issues, and Yen and Tang nearly have a falling out. The two do seem to patch things up, but the cracks in the group's camaraderie begin to worsen. Some boys are pressured to drop the group, while others continue to misbehave, ignoring the damage it may have on their future. Ultimately, the boys' aimlessness results in a tragedy that further drives them apart, revealing the anger, cowardice, fear, jealousy, and helplessness that lives within them.

Winds of September is a second feature for director Tom Lin, whose facility with the Taiwan Cinema house style (picturesque settings, sharp cinematography, slow pacing, generous visual storytelling) gives his film an air of quality most other features would envy. The film's superficial trappings are exceptionally impressive, such that one may feel that the obvious surface quality also exists underneath. Lin does make his characters distinct, giving them personality and charisma, but the situations don't necessarily extend beyond what's obvious. Lin sketches his situations and characters sharply, but despite the drama inherent in his subject matter, Lin never seems to draw the film away from tried-and-true formula. This is a youth film about misbehaving youth, so they're going to have fun, fight, get into trouble, and eventually get in over their heads. Ultimately, what happens to them is expected and even perfunctory because, well, that's what always happens in these films.

Not that there's anything wrong with conventional movies, especially ones that feel as quality as this one. Winds of September doesn’t do much to make it necessarily stand out, but it possesses a variety of promising, attractive new faces, plus it assembles its elements exceptionally well. Sometimes style (even non-flashy, contemplative style) can make the generic more substantial, and Tom Lin assembles a fine package, getting effective performances from his cast, and making their generic conflicts come to matter. Furthermore, Lin's portrait of Taiwan is undeniably pretty to look at it, and is beautifully captured by art director Lee Tien-Chue and cinematographer Fisher Yu. Hsinchu is more suburban than Taipei, and possesses an idyllic rural charm that perfectly fits the film's coming-of-age themes. Also, the use of the historically-accurate baseball scandal is intriguing, echoing the boys' maturation and changing emotions well. Winds of September is not fully-realized, and lacks the depth or complexity to take it to another level of achievement. But for a second feature, it's a fine effort, and one worthy of support.


Review Source and Credit: Kozo, loveHKFilm

[Review] God Man Dog

Tarcy Su (left) and Han Cheng (right) admire the traveling Buddha in God Man Dog.

Don't pull the plug just yet - Taiwanese director Singing Chen proves that Taiwanese cinema hasn't reduced itself to only making teen movies and Europe-friendly arthouse flicks with God Man Dog. Taking a cue from the recent spate of ensemble films, Chen explores the lives of Taiwanese people of different backgrounds who come together as the result of a car accident. Despite using a similar event and featuring similar themes, this isn't just 21 Grams in Taiwan. In fact, God Man Dog transcends the heavy drama of the Iñárritu film and become something uniquely Taiwanese, and yet with universal emotions.

The film starts off with the emotionally heavy stuff quickly. First, a professional hand model Ching (Tracy Su) suffers from post-natal depression and a bit of paranoia, but her architect husband Hsuing (Han Chang, older brother of Chang Chen) has no idea how to deal with it, driving their marriage to the brink of collapse. Meanwhile, a Taiwanese Aborigine couple struggles to overcome alcoholism while also trying to repair their relationship with their daughter Savi, who was sent off to the city because of past troubles with her parents. Lastly, Yellow Bull (Jack Gao, whose performance was nominated at the Asian Film Awards) is an amputee who is saving up for a new prosthetic leg through his day job, driving a giant illuminated Buddha to various temples for religious festivals. One day, he encounters a young stowaway (Yi Yi's Jonathan Chang, all grown up) with an insatiable appetite and a talent for hiding in buses.

In typical ensemble fashion, these stories will all come together, though not in a way one might expect. While a few of these plot lines do converge into a single incident, the events of God Man Dog do not surround this one incident. Chen is more interested in developing these plots as individual narratives, though the decisions some of the characters make do end up affecting one another. Surprisingly, these effects usually result in amused chuckles. While most dramas would start light and build towards an emotional climax, Chen and co-writer Yi-An Lou choose to go the other way; they weigh the film down with heavy emotions in the first half, then lighten things up in the second half with considerable humor. Chen seems to genuinely care for her characters, and she refuses to keep them emotionally tortured in favor of heightening audience emotions. This could be strange for some audiences, who may find God Man Dog to be a surprisingly light effort in the end.

Amazingly enough, the transition works. God Man Dog still deals with serious themes such as alcoholism, paranoia, depression, redemption, and religion throughout - and yet it can also include a darkly funny sequence involving two underage girls pretending to be prostitutes in order to rob their customers. These extremes exist because Chen doesn't exploit the serious themes, using traumatic experiences to build her characters rather then using them to test the characters' limits. However, Chen sometimes jumps between the stories too often in the first half, moving from one tragic event to another without giving the audience a chance to get involved in the individual stories. Nevertheless, the real fun in watching such ensemble films is seeing how these characters are connected, and God Man Dog's answer to that question is satisfying enough that the stories are able to come into their own.

The film's success can also be attributed to the performances. Jack Gao, known for playing mob characters, changes his image significantly for a subtle performance as the handicapped Yellow Bull. As the moral center of the film, Bull is the strongest character in the film despite being the most physically vulnerable. Gao's performance, as well as the screenplay, helps the character make a lasting impression on the audience - and this is without the benefit of any "give me an award"-style moments. On the other hand, Tarcy Su is given many of those moments as the emotionally unstable Ching. The singer/actress handles her heavy role capably, though her character is also sometimes frustrating and unlikable.

God Man Dog is not necessarily mainstream filmmaking because of its heavy themes, excessive symbolism (the dogs are cute, but a little too much) and a potentially confusing, broad canvas of characters. However, it doesn't come even close to the level of alienating arthouse films in the style of Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang. It's a genuine attempt at ambitious storytelling that rewards - not punishes - involved audiences with its payoff. With solid performances, an impressive screenplay, beautiful cinematography, and a stirring score by Hiromichi Sakamoto, God Man Dog proves that there is still hope for Taiwanese cinema.


Article Source and Credits: Kevin Ma and LoveHKFilm.com

1895 in Formosa - A Forgotten History Re-Interpreted

[ About the Film ]

After losing the Sino-Japanese war (甲午戰爭) in 1894, the imperial Chinese government signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki (馬關條約) with the Japanese Empire, giving Taiwan and Penghu to Japan. Groups of Taiwanese wishing to defend their own land and identity, organized armed resistance against the Japanese troops and established the Taiwan Republic, a “Republic” that only lasted five days before all the Chinese high officials fled back to China when the Japanese troops landed in the northern fishing village of Taiwan. All of those who were left, including this Hakka group in the middle part of Taiwan, had to fight for what they believe in all on their own, without the assistance promised to them, to the very end. What follows after 1895, was a Japanese reign lasting for half a century.”


[ Documenting One’s Own History ]

Out of the many Taiwanese films I’ve watched so far, what makes 1895 one of the most moving films is the fact that it attempts to recapture the patriotism and struggle of a minority group in Taiwan in maintaining their own heritage and cultural identity against the intruders in an important transitional period in Taiwan history. The plot is based on real people and historical incidence; the main language spoken in the film is not Mandarin nor Taiwanese (Fukien) but Hakka – a less familiar dialect spoken by Taiwanese with the Hakka ancestral heritage. The film amplifies the determination of a small group of Hakka farmers and educated thinkers untrained in modern military warfare sets about giving their lives in defending their home and ways of living, however small their force might be to the rising Japanese Empire.

It is not a film about the monstrosity of war like most war documentary with shocking and gruesome images. It is rather a film that explores the mixed emotions of the invaders, the defenders and the family back home. The Japanese Prince, who was in command of the conquest of Taiwan, appears as a well-educated man who wants peaceful reconciliation rather than the eventual “wiping out” of all that came against his troop. Young Japanese soldiers who are dying of epidemic beg their doctor to lie to their family that they died gloriously in battlefield. The mothers and wives back home in the Hakka village carried on with their everyday work away from the horror of the battlefield, fearing that every time their husband or son leaves would be their last time seeing them but could not stop them from leaving them again. The home-defenders, being betrayed by the Chinese high officials who urged them to rise up and fight for their land and people, are left with broken promise for supplies, support and dream, and had to fight their way to the very end, which ultimately means death alone.


When I watched the film in a Taipei cinema, during a Q&A period with the film director and the leading male actor after the film, many in the audience were in tears. Many were touched by the fact that someone has finally made a film based on their people’s history. A young girl in the audience whose ancestors happened to be from the family (天水堂) in which the film was based burst out tearing as she thanked the film director and production team for documenting their history. Others were surprised to learn about this part of history and were moved by the sentiment and burst out cheering “國片加油!” (“Support Taiwanese Films!”).


Historical happenings are often the subject for film makers to develop into stories that would draw many viewers to the film makers' interpretation of the historical events and to remind people that certain things will never be forgotten although time has moved on. For 1895 in Formosa, the stories of a minotiry group in Taiwan defending for what they believe in at period of political instability reminds or introduces a chaptern in history that history itself might have forgotten.

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Taken from Original publication by Tiffany Lee (perladipace)
刊登於多倫多大學台灣同學會 ROCSAUT 冬季社刊 2009.
Published in University of Toronto ROCSAUT (R.O.C. Student Association U. of Toronto) Publication Winter 2009.

Taiwanese Film Revival - Resurgence of Taiwanese Films

Taiwanese films in the recent years have been receiving more recognition for their effort in reviving the width and depth of Taiwan that many foreigners (or even Taiwanese themselves) did not see. Although keen film goers may be exposed to a few Taiwanese films during international film festivals such as the TWFF or VIFF in Canada, the appearance of such films even in large cinemas in Taiwan a few years back is close to non-existent. A year ago, you might still be hearing comments such as " What is there to see in Taiwanese films?" (國片有什麼好看的?) from a young or old Taiwanese. But with th surge of outstanding or eye-catching Taiwanese films in the past few years such as “Island Etude” (練習曲), “Cape No. 7” (海角七號), “Orz Boys” (冏男孩), “The Most Distant Course” (最遙遠的距離), “Secret” (不能說的秘密), “Keeping Watch” (沉睡的青春), “Spider Lily” (刺青), “Do Over” (一年之初), Taiwanese films have found their way of exploring the best the island has to offer in the stories they want to tell. The films might not have very impressive high-tech computer reworking, expensive sets or Oscar-winning custom designers. But with their limited budget, you will be surprised by how they achieve moments that could move its audience in ways like million-dollar films do.

For Taiwanese abroad, this patriotism has already spread far and wide. When one is away from one’s own place, one tends to see the value of one’s own culture, history and heritage more clearly than those who are immersed in it. That is why, when young students in Taiwan are going after Hollywood Blockbusters and wondering “What’s there to see in Taiwanese films?”, Taiwan student organizations in universities worldwide are already organizing events related to Taiwanese film screenings. In Canada, UBCLE of UBC also organized the first ever Taiwanese Film Festival in Canada back in 2007 (http://twff.ca/) that not only received substantial press coverage in media but also sparked local interests in Taiwanese films.

In Taiwan nowadays, when you talk about Taiwanese films, you will definitely hear a different voice. When you go to the large cinemas in Taipei on a weekend evening, if you’re lucky, you’ll get to meet the film director, production team, or actors/actresses of the film at the end of the screening. These small Q&A sessions in are not only means for the film crew to get closer to the audience and receive feedbacks but also as ways to assist with the promotion of the film (who doesn’t want to have a photo with the movie stars!).

The power of films is the moments that manage to strike a chord in viewers’ heart, a feeling that does not just last for a few seconds, but forever. With the recent Taiwanese films, you are bound to find some moments that could touch your heart. You would be surprised by how much you missed out on Taiwan by missing out on its films.

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Taken from Original publication by Tiffany Lee (perladipace).

刊登於多倫多大學台灣同學會 ROCSAUT 冬季社刊 2009.

Published in University of Toronto ROCSAUT (R.O.C. Student Association U. of Toronto) Publication Winter 2009.

check out TWFF3 Trailers!

All six films featured have English subtitles.

'God Man Dog' wins at Berlin film festival

Excerpt from The China Post, February 18, 2008.

View the complete article here.

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- A Taiwan movie that humorously fashions an allegorical tragicomedy about the crisis of faith in contemporary Taiwan — "God Man Dog" — has won the Tagesspiegel Readers’ Prize in Berlin, the film’s local producer said yesterday.

The film, directed by Taiwanese director Singing Chen, was chosen from among the 36 movies from 33 countries competing in the 2008 Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum for New Cinema, which is aimed at honoring young filmmakers.

"The film consistently drew packed audience each time it was screened during the festival," the statement said, adding that major German newspapers, including Der Tagesspiegel, a Berlin-based national daily that organizes the Tagesspiegel Readers’ Prize, have given prominent coverage and ran many reviews about the film.

The statement quoted reports from Berlin as saying that the nine members of the jury unanimously agreed that "God Man Dog" was the most appealing. "They decided to give the laurel to the film without even any discussion," the statement said. Chen was quoted as having said at the presentation that she feels honored and excited to receive recognition from the most important German newspaper.

View the complete article here.

See me on Youtube!

Vancouver B.C. – Lately, some Vancouverites may have noticed a mysterious silent creature strolling the Robson or jogging around Granville Island. Sometimes he is spotted taking a ride on the skytrain. Sometimes he is seen sitting leisurely on a bench and slurping on a cup of ice cream...

And believe it or not, it's all caught on tape! I feel like a youtube celebrity now hahaha... Check it out EVERYONE!!

Episode 1


Episode 2

Who's Big Eye?

Hello, I am Big Eye, the official mascot for the Taiwanese Film Festival in Vancouver.Be on the lookout for me around Vancouver!

Spot Big Eye on the streets of Vancouver and win free tickets to the Taiwanese Film Festival 3! Take photos with ME and submit them to bigeye@ubcle.com! (Limited offer to the first 20 entries!!!)