Directed by:
Chinlin HsiehVOD (1)
Plots(1)
Hsieh grew up watching such Taiwanese greats as Houn and Edvard Yang, whose films were gradually discovered – and soon praised – abroad. The old-school melodramas had to make way and the citizens of an isolated country under martial law were finally able to encounter their identity on the big screen. Contrary to the commercial Hong Kong, Taiwanese productions were slower in pace, focused on the characters and were beautifully composed. Hsieh Chinlin, who was even Hou's assistant director for a brief period later on, moved to France when he was just over 20 years old. He has worked for a long time as a programmer for the famed Rotterdam Film Festival. The interviewees in his "road movie" include such former Sodankylä guests as directors Olivier Assayas and Apichatpong Weerasethakul along with critics Tony Rayns and Pierre Rissient. Also directors Jia Zhangke, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Tsai Ming-Lian as well as artist Ai Weiwei get to have their say. Even the earliest extracts of Taiwanese cinema have remained so fresh that one would instantly want to see these treats: for example Hou's A Summer at Grandpa's (1984) and A Time to Live, a Time to Die (1985) as well as Yang's Brighter Summer Day (1991) or 1 + 1 (2000). (TM) (Midnight Sun Film Festival)
(more)Cast
Weiwei Ai
China
浅野忠信
Japan
Best movies:
Our Mother (2008)
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi (2003)
Olivier Assayas
France
Bing Wang
China
Hsiao-Hsien Hou
China
Best movies:
Taipei Story (1985)
The Boys from Fengkuei (1983)
Zhangke Jia
China
Best movies:
Unknown Pleasures (2002)
A Touch of Sin (2013)
Hirokazu Kore'eda
Japan
Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Japan
Best movies:
The Man Who Stole the Sun (1979)
The Funeral (1984)
Occult (2009)
Jazmín López
Argentina
Martín Rejtman
Argentina
Kei Shu
Hong Kong
Zhuangzhuang Tian
China
Best movies:
Us and Them (2018)
The Shadowless Tower (2023)
Ming-liang Tsai
Malaysia
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Thailand
Liang Ying
China
Pierre Rissient
France