Smangus: A Year in the Clouds, a documentary about the Atayal community of Smangus, will screen on Taiwan’s Public Television Service (PTS) tonight (30 June). The documentary had its premiere in Smangus on Tuesday night. It is a co-production between PTS and British documentary makers Dean Johnson and Frank Smith. The team filmed various aspects of the daily life in Smangus over a period of 15 months.

According to the official website of the documentary, Smangus was chosen as the subject of the documentary because it is an example of the search for sustainability and coexistence through its system of cooperative management. “Smangus Village is unique not just in Taiwan but an example to the world,” the website says.

I was in Smangus when they shot the scenes of the millet harvest. At that time they were discussing plans to film Smangus from a helicopter. Chief Icyeh had always wanted to fly over Smangus in a helicopter so he joined the crew as they filmed. You can see the video of this on YouTube.

As well as filming from a helicopter the crew filmed the giant trees (Yaya Qparung) of Smangus using cameras mounted on cables. I am sure it will be spectacular to see. Most importantly the documentary will provide a means for more people to learn about and understand Smangus.

You can see a selection of videos related to the production of the documentary on YouTube. Smangus: A Year in the Clouds will screen at 10pm on 30 June 2011 on PTS channel 13 in Taiwan.

*Purchase the DVD from PTS.

• Approaching storms and millet harvest in Smangus
• Smangus and the tree stump
• High Court delivers not guilty verdict in Smangus case
• Second trip to Smangus
• Journey to Smangus

Tony Coolidge was born in Taiwan, but moved to the United States of America with his mother and step-father at a young age. While growing up in the USA his mother kept details of her life in Taiwan hidden. She encouraged her children to speak English so they could fit in. A year after his mother passed away from cancer Tony returned to Taiwan to meet his mother’s family. Only then did he discover that his family were indigenous people belonging to the Atayal group.

After making this discovery Tony returned to Taiwan again several years later along with his younger brother and Taiwanese wife to further explore his roots and connections with Taiwan’s indigenous people. His journey of self-discovery takes him into indigenous communities around Taiwan.

In particular Tony meets with several elderly Atayal and Truku women who have facial tattoos. These women represent a living connection with an ancient tradition. We get a sense of how these women have lived through a period of extraordinary change, first coming under the influence of the Japanese and then Chinese Nationalist governments. Pilin Yabu’s documentary The Stories of Rainbow (彩虹的故事), which I saw two years ago, reveals more details about the lives of these women.

As well as being a personal story film is also an appeal for recognition of the value of indigenous wisdom. It shows some of the difficulties indigenous peoples face to maintain their culture in the midst of pressures to assimilate into the mainstream society. Tony has established an NGO called ATAYAL which aims to promote indigenous culture and build connections between indigenous people in Taiwan and the USA.

The documentary explores themes of cultural identity, belonging and finding family and community. I think it can connect with audiences in Taiwan as it is essentially about a search for identity. This is not just relevant to Taiwanese who have grown up abroad and return to Taiwan, or those who discover they have indigenous heritage. It is something relevant to all Taiwanese as they seek to find their own place within the rich, complex ethnic structure of Taiwan.

Links

• Voices in the Clouds – official website
• Voices in the Clouds – IMDb
• Voices in the Clouds – trailer at Vimeo
• Past imperfect – Taipei Times article
• ATAYAL – Tony Coolidge’s NGO

• Smangus documentary to screen on PTS
• Interesting weather
• Links 31 December 2007
• The sun sets on 2006
• Taiwan romance novel

2010 saw a number of interesting Taiwanese films released. I saw and reviewed a good cross section of them on this blog. The gangster film Monga (艋舺) was the year’s big hit raking in over NT$250 million at the box office.

Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北) and Taipei Exchanges (第36個故事) were two enjoyable films that showed a certain savviness in appealing to audiences. Seven Days in Heaven (父後七日), a drama about a funeral ceremony, also enjoyed quite good success. (I saw it but didn’t write a review.)

Pinoy Sunday (台北星期天) and The Fourth Portrait (第四張畫) were two films that looked at the experience of migrants in Taiwan from very different angles. Pinoy Sunday was a comic look at the lives of two Filipino workers in Taipei. While The Fourth Portrait was a serious drama that included the story of a Chinese woman struggling to adapt to life in Taiwan.

2010 also saw the long awaited release of Formosa Betrayed (被出賣的台灣) in Taiwan. I attended the premiere in Taichung. Although it was not the first film to address Taiwan’s White Terror period, it was the first to directly portray many of the historical events. I reviewed Tears (眼淚) in 2009 although it was officially released in Taiwan in 2010. Like Formosa Betrayed it had a theme of transitional justice, although Taiwanese director Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂) took a notably different approach to the issue. Tears focuses on the life of a policeman as he seeks to come to terms with his wrongdoings earlier in his career.

As a result of moving from Taipei to Taichung I missed the chance to attend the Taipei Film Festival and the Golden Horse Film Festival this year. I did get to Taipei for the Taiwan premiere of the The Cove, which was the opening of the Urban Nomad Film Festival. I also got to see several more films from the Urban Nomad Film Festival at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts in Taichung. I also saw a number of films at the 2010 International Indigenous Film Festival at the Fine Arts Museum.

The release of Wei Te-sheng’s (魏德聖) historical epic Seediq Bale (賽德克・巴萊) will be the most anticipated moment in Taiwanese cinema in 2011. It is set to be released in two parts in September.

*The Taipei Times also has a review of Taiwanese movies in 2010. Check out the Taiwan movie guide at Taiwanderful. It has information about many Taiwanese movies released in the last few years.

• My article about Taiwanese cinema at culture.tw
• 2010 Taipei Film Festival
• 2007 at the movies
• Taiwanese cinema resurgent in 2008
• 10th Taipei Film Festival

Michael Turton has posted an excellent interview with Dr Bruno Walther about biodiversity in Taiwan. Dr Walther is a visiting professor at Taipei Medical University and also works at the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute. In the interview he discusses some of the key challenges Taiwan faces to protect its biodiversity.

Dr Walther and Klaus Bardenhagen have co-produced a documentary about the biodiversity crisis called Crisis of Life. It features interviews with a number of leading scientists. The trailer of the documentary is embedded above and you can watch more videos on the website.

• Population and birth rate need more debate
• Disappearing fish
• Links 4 February 2008
• Taiwan needs a Green president(ial candidate)
• Betel nut girls in the news

The story begins with the death of Xiang’s father who was his sole carer. He is temporarily taken care of by the school janitor before going to live with his mother who has remarried. Xiang’s mother, Chun-lan played by Hao Lei (郝蕾), is from China and works in a hostess bar. She is too tired and broken to give Xiang the care and attention he needs. In one scene where she goes to meet Xiang’s teacher she emotionally relates the difficulties and struggles she has faced since coming to Taiwan.

The film contains elements of dark comedy, as well as more outright comedy provided by the petty criminal “Pistol” (手槍仔), played by Na Do (納豆). He forms a friendship with Xiang, leading him to engage in some petty crimes. However, although he is on the wrong side of the law, he essentially has a good heart. The friendship is part of Xiang’s search for a father figure.

This is in contrast with Xiang’s step-father played by Leon Dai (戴立忍). The step-father cares little for Xiang and seems self-absorbed. The film hints at his violent nature but there is only one scene where it is shown directly.

Throughout the film Xiang searches for love and and a place to belong. He also dreams an older brother who has gone missing. As the film draws to a conclusion a dark secret is revealed.

The film is beautifully shot in gray-blue tones that complement the world of poverty that Xiang lives in. The settings are typically decaying old buildings with not a single bright light or 7-11 to be seen. Some landscape scenes beautifully shot in saturated color provide a wonderful contrast to this depressing world.

The Fourth Portrait takes its place alongside other recent child-centred Taiwanese films like Orz Boyz and No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti. It brings up important issues of poverty, domestic violence and the place of Chinese immigrants in Taiwanese society. Although some key elements of the story aren’t fully developed, this weakness is made up for by the strong characters and excellent acting.

Links

• Fourth Portrait – Internet Movie Database
• Atom Cinema – movie blog
• A little boy lost – Taipei Times review
• The Fourth Portrait – Film Business Asia review
• The Fourth Portrait – trailer on YouTube

• Taiwanese cinema in 2010
• 2010 Taipei Film Festival
• Movie review: Reflections
• 2007 at the movies
• Movie review: Island Etude

The Murder by Numbers Film Festival  (殺人影展3：亞洲與世界的對話), featuring films and documentaries on the theme of the death penalty, is on from 8-10 October in Taipei. It will be followed by screenings in Hsinchu and on university campuses later in the month. The festival coincides with the World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October.

The festival is the third to be organised by the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (台灣廢除死刑推動聯盟). The first festival was held in 2004 and the second in 2007. The theme of the third festival is a dialogue between Asia and the world. Asia is one of the regions of the world where the death penalty is most frequently carried out. Taiwan had an unofficial moratorium on the death penalty from December 2005 until April this year when four prisoners were executed. These executions again brought the death penalty debate into the spotlight and showed that Taiwanese society is deeply divided on the issue. Events like this film festival provide an important opportunity for people to engage in dialogue about the death penalty issue.

A number of films in the festival either have an English-language soundtrack or subtitles. The opening film of the festival on Friday night is Formosa Homicide Chronicle II, The Case of Lu Cheng. This documentary from Taiwan is about the case of Lu Cheng, a Taiwanese man who was executed for murder in 2000, despite there being major questions about the standard of evidence produced in the court.

There are more films with English soundtrack or subtitles on Saturday. At the Death House Door is a documentary about Pastor Carroll Pickett who was a death house chaplain in Texas. He presided over 95 executions and recorded his experience of each execution on audio tape. The film for the mystery screening on Saturday night has not yet been selected. However, all the films in the selection for the mystery screening have an English-language soundtrack or subtitles.

The closing film on Sunday night, From the Queen to the Chief Executive, is a film from Hong Kong. It is based on the cases of juvenile offenders “detained at Her Majesty’s pleasure” and appeals for justice around the time of Hong Kong’s hand over to China.

The screenings in Taipei are at the Tsai Lecture Hall of the National Taiwan University Law Department. Entry is free. You can register online for tickets and pick up the tickets one hour to half hour an hour before the screening time. If you haven’t registered then tickets are available from half an hour before the screening time.

On 23-24 October the festival is in Hsinchu at the Image Museum of Hsinchu City. There are also campus screenings during October at National Cheng Kung University (10/15), National Chung Cheng University (10/18-19), Yu Shan Theological College (10/18), Providence University (10/19) and Chung Yuan University (10/20). To check the exact times of screenings, map of the venues or register go to the festival’s website at http://taedp-film2010.blogspot.com.

• Taipei Film Festival opens tomorrow
• Working the streets
• Time to end the death penalty
• Formosa Betrayed set for February 2010 release
• 10th Taipei Film Festival

The film is described as “inspired by actual events”. The murder of a Taiwanese American professor at the beginning of the movie is an obvious reference to the murder of Taiwanese writer Henry Liu in California in 1984. The Kaohsiung Incident, the Lin Yi-hsiung family murders, spies on US university campuses and the 228 Massacre are also alluded to in the film in varying degrees of detail.

Audiences in Taiwan will already be familiar with much of the historical background to the events portrayed in the film. Those with background knowledge of Taiwan’s history might find some of the details are not accurate or don’t concord with the chronology of the White Terror period and the early 1980s the film is set in. However, the focus should really be on the story of how an American FBI agent discovers the truth about the true nature of the ROC regime on Taiwan. It is this process of discovery by FBI agent Jake Kelly that forms the central part of the story.

Agent Kelly, played by James Van Der Beek, is working on the investigation of the murder of Professor Wen, a Taiwanese American professor who was shot on a US university campus. When the two suspects flee the country he is then sent to Taiwan to observe the investigation. In Taiwan Kelly gradually finds that the authorities in Taiwan are not merely not cooperating, there is something much more serious going on.

The plot is very well structured and builds to a strong climax. The pacing is perhaps a little slow for those used to Hollywood action fare, but it allows time for events to unfold and for the audience to reflect on the new discoveries that Agent Kelly makes. The government officials who seek to “entertain” Agent Kelly serve as the face of the regime that successfully fools most outsiders. Susan Kane, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT ) liason officer played by Wendy Crewson, represents the complicity of the US in supporting the authoritarian regime on Taiwan. The presence of a Taiwanese general who is sympathetic to the democracy movement shows the film wants to suggest that people working both inside and outside the government contributed to Taiwan’s democratic transformation. The other main Taiwanese characters represent the pro-democracy movement. When the activist Ming, played by Will Tiao, says, ”The Chinese say we are their brothers. But if we are brothers why do they treat us like this?” this really sums up the pro-Taiwan sentiments that run through the film.

Although there have been a number of Taiwanese films about the White Terror period none of them have looked at the events as directly as Formosa Betrayed. The release of the film in Taiwan is sure to promote much discussion. It should also appeal to young people, who were just babies or not even born at the time the events portrayed in the film took place. It should encourage them to ask more questions and try to understand the past. Formosa Betrayed succeeds in bringing the story of Taiwan’s recent history to a wider audience.

*Formosa Betrayed is screening at cinemas in Taipei, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan and Kaohsiung starting on Friday 6 August. Check Yahoo Movies or newspapers for exact details.

**Purchase Formosa Betrayed on DVD from Amazon.com (affiliate link).

Links

• Formosa Betrayed – official website
• Formosa Betrayed – Internet Movie Database
• Formosa Betrayed – trailer at YouTube
• Producer brings Taiwan’s history to the big screen – Taipei Times interview with Will Tiao
• The Gospel According to Will: Formosa Betrayed – Michael Turton’s review
• Telling the story – The Far-Eastern Sweet Potato’s review
• Formosa Betrayed coming to theaters in Taiwan – The Peking Duck’s review

• Formosa Betrayed set for February 2010 release
• Formosa Betrayed coming soon
• Taiwanese cinema in 2010
• Formosa Betrayed trailer
• A movie that needs to be made

The Taipei Awards section contains a good line up of films, documentaries, shorts and animations by Taiwanese directors. Most of the feature films have already been released so it is a good chance to catch them in the cinema if you missed them first time around. These include Tears (眼淚), Au Revoir Taipei (一頁台北), Tsai Ming-liang’s Face (臉), Hear Me (聽說), Monga (艋舺), Pinoy Sunday (台北星期天) and Taipei Exchanges (第36個故事). Forthcoming films in the Taipei Awards are Seven Days in Heaven (父後七日), The Fourth Portrait (第四張畫) and Everlasting Moments (靈魂的旅程). Everlasting Moments is directed by Chen Wen-bin (陳文彬). It is a follow up to his short film about Atayal culture, Msgamil: Once Upon a Time (走過千年). In this film an ancient Atayal warrior goes to the city.

There are also free screenings at the Taipei Cinema Park (台北市電影公園). These begin with Taipei Live! from 25 June culminating in the awards on 1 July. On the 2-4 July there is Family Taipei. The Taipei Film Festival in cooperation with the Goethe Institute is presenting a series of films on green issues  from 9-11 July. All the events at the Taipei Cinema Park begin at 7:00 pm.

Most films in the festival have both English and Chinese subtitles, but check the website to be sure. Tickets are available at the venues throughout the festival.

• Formosa Betrayed set for February 2010 release
• Taiwanese cinema in 2010
• Taipei Film Festival opens tomorrow
• Working the streets
• 10th Taipei Film Festival

Pinoy Sunday (台北星期天) directed by Ho Wi-ding (何蔚庭) tells the story of Manuel (Epy Quizon) and Dado (Bayani Agbayani), two Filipinos who work in a bicycle factory on the outskirts of Taipei.

The film begins by giving some background to their lives in the city. We see their basic accommodation in the factory where they yearn for a bit more comfort. Every night they are faced with being locked out if they don’t return to the factory before curfew. We also learn about their personal relationships. Manuel pursues the glamourous Celia (Alessandra de Rossi), while Dado is torn between his girlfriend Anna (Meryll Soriano) and his wife and family back in the Philippines.

Sunday is their day off when they seek some escape from the drudgery of life in the factory. They visit Little Manila in Zhongshan North Road and attend a service in the Catholic Church. Later they discover a red leather couch abandoned by the side of the road.

In their efforts to carry to the couch back to their factory they test their friendship and also have various encounters with an ensemble of characters. Although the Filipinos do essential work they are isolated from Taiwanese society by linguistic barriers and discriminatory attitudes. This isolation and marginalisation is apparent in the film but it also provides a window from which to observe Taiwanese society.

The Taiwanese people in the film are often depicted as unhappy. The couch that Manuel and Dado carry was abandoned after an argument between a Taiwanese couple. Anna cares for an elderly women who shows little emotion and whose family are too busy to pay attention to her. This is in contrast to the two Filipino friends who are able to find happiness and satisfaction in a couch and their friendship.

The film invites comparisons with Detours to Paradise (歧路天堂), another recent Taiwanese film about the lives of foreign workers. While both films are reminders of the difficulties faced by foreign workers in Taiwan, Pinoy Sunday has a brighter and more hopeful tone.

Pinoy Sunday beautifully captures the spirit of friendship and hope shared by Manuel and Dado. Despite the hardships they face there is an underlying sense of optimism that prevails.

Links

• Pinoy Sunday – official website
• Pinoy Sunday – Internet Movie Database
• Hidden in plain sight – Taipei Times review
• Pinoy Sunday – trailer at YouTube

• 2010 Taipei Film Festival
• Taiwanese cinema in 2010
• 2007 at the movies
• Movie review: Island Etude
• The Wall-Passer: unique sci-fi romance

The movie is set in a cafe that Doris (played by Guai Lun-mei 桂綸鎂) opens with her sister Josie (played by Zaizai Lin 林辰唏). After asking the guests at the opening to bring a gift the cafe is filled with various items. Unwilling to sell anything other than coffee Josie starts to allow customers to trade things in the cafe for something they think is of equal value.

In the beginning Doris is business minded, while Josie is more idealistic. However the process of trading things not for their monetary value but for their meaning slowly transforms Doris.

A question that runs through the movie is whether one should spend their money on study or travel around the world. I think this is a question that runs deep in the mind of many Taiwanese people. The film uses several devices to explore this including interviews with people on the street. These integrate into the movie and it all flows quite well.

The majority of the scenes take place in the coffee shop though. The cafe used in the film was built especially for the production of the film but is now open for business. It’s located at No. 393 Fujin Street, Taipei City (台北市富錦街393號) and the name 朵兒咖啡館 is the same as in the movie. I don’t think you’ll find Gwai Lun-mei serving coffee there though.

Taipei Exchanges is a movie about understanding the value of things and following your dreams. It is quite a delight to watch and Guai Lun-mei and Zaizai Lin give great performances.

Links

• Taipei Exchanges – official website
• Taipei Exchanges – official blog
• Pennies for their thoughts – Taipei Times review
• ‘Taipei Exchanges’ catches you off guard – Taiwan News review
• 第36個故事 – Trailer on YouTube

• 2010 Taipei Film Festival
• Taiwanese cinema in 2010
• 2007 at the movies
• Movie review: Island Etude
• The Wall-Passer: unique sci-fi romance