The Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles and the UC San Diego will present the Taiwan Film Showcase during the period of San Diego Asian Film Festival between November 12th to the 14th of 2017 at the Rice Center Theater with a total of seven Taiwanese films of today.
With diversified topics and robust casts, the majority films were premiered in north America. Films include “Mon Mon Mon Monsters”, a dark comedy high-school million-dollar drama; “The Great Buddha+”, winner of the 19th Taipei Film Festival and received 10 nominations at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, including Best Feature Film and Best New Director for Huang; “Small Talk”, premiered at the 67th Berlin International Film Festival in the Panorama section, and won the Teddy Award for Best Documentary film; “The Last Verse”, a millennium fragile love story; “A Fish Out of the Water”, winner of the Spain San Sebastian International Film Festival; “The Silent Teacher”, a winner of CNEX Chinese Documents forum ; “Who is Arthur Chu”, the legendary documentary on the winner of Jeopardy.
“Mon Mon Mon Monsters”, a brand new adaptation from director and co-producer Giddens Ko’s original screen play, premiered this summer. The horror-comedy tells the story of Lin Shu-wei, a bullied straight-A student that was wrongfully accused of stealing money. Along with the three bullies from the class, Lin was assigned to perform community services. In order to conform and be accepted as one of the gang, Lin resorted to perform misdeeds along with the bullies. As they stumbled upon a pair of flesh-eating female ghouls, the monsters, and captured one of them, their sadistic game lead to disastrous consequences. The film centers on the topic of bullying in the school yards. The monsters were purely induction, true evil exits within the twisting of the mind. Ticketed attendees are welcome to join us on November 12th at 5:30 pm with director Giddens Ko in person at our reception.
“The Great Buddha+”, the opening film for the Taipei Film Festival tells a story of a night guard, Pickle, of a bronze factory and his colleague, Belly Bottom, a recycling collector. He takes simple pleasures in porn magazines from Belly Bottom with late night snacks while watching television, until one day, the television ceased to operate, both of their lives are forever transformed. The film probes into gods, middle-aged men and their sexuality conversations with the immortals. Director plays with the ideology of irony, the chasm of the elites and the commons of Taiwan. Director Huang Hsin-yao comically depicted inequality and agony through plot, lines and personalities. With the black and white filming, the director further sketched the discriminated society and its washed out and the helpless lives of the common people.
Documentaries are just as surprising. “Fish Out of the Water”, employed the Asian believe of the reincarnation, director Lai Kuo-An tells a story of a couple struggling to make ends meet while care for their demented father and their psychotic son who searches a small fish village for his parents from a past life. “Last Verse” tells the story that span between 2000 and 2016. Director Tsung Ying-Ting delved into the fragility of the millenniums; their growing pain, their hopes and dreams, their clashes with family and their love to each other. Director Huang Hui-Chen’s “Small Talk”, a casual dining table conversation, layer by layer rewinds while reconcile a mother’s revealing lesbian past. “The Silent Teacher”, director Maso Chen questions the meaning of the survivor through the point of view of a husband that seldom speaks to his wife but ultimately opens up to her cadaver after her passing. “Who is Arthur Chu”, charts out a game show winner and his live after the winning of Jeopardy, his views on discrimination, race, sex, culture and controversies.
The Taiwan Academy in Los Angeles states that the Asian Film Showcase event is a collaboration between the San Diego Asian Film Festival, UC San Diego Taiwan Studies Lecture Series and the UC San Diego Chuan Lyu Endowed Chair in Taiwan Studies. 2017 marks the sixth (6th) consecutive year of the event, in coordination with the San Diego Asian Film Festival, Taiwan films continue to be launched on the campus of UC San Diego, the most screenings conducted site away from Asian regions.