Min Nan

  • Toon Wang – Wu yan de shan qiu AKA Hill of No Return (1992)

    Drama1991-2000ArthouseTaiwanToon Wang

    In the 1920’s, when Taiwan is Japan’s colony, the small town Chiu-Fen was famous of its gold mines. Escaping from the landlord’s control, Chu and Wei join the gold rush in Chiu-Fen, hoping that they can be rich and have their own land some day. The are two kinds of women in the small town : hard working housewives and prostitute. The formers are always struggling in poverty. Jou is one of them. People believe that she is doomed to be a widow. She married twice. Both of her husbands are dead. Che falls in love with her anyway. He becomes her third husband in despite of people’s warning. Many of the masters of brothels make a future from prostitution business as well as the black market of gold. Wei loves Fumiko, a young prostitute. He decides to buy back her freedom.Read More »

  • Ming-liang Tsai – Hei yan quan AKA I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone [+Extras] (2006)

    2001-2010DramaMalaysiaMing-liang TsaiQueer Cinema(s)

    Forest fires burn in Sumatra; a smoke covers Kuala Lumpur. Grifters beat an immigrant day laborer and leave him on the streets. Rawang, a young man, finds him, carries him home, cares for him, and sleeps next to him. In a loft above lives a waitress. She sometimes provides care and attention. More violence seems a constant possibility. They find another man abandoned on the street, paralyzed. They carry him. While no one speaks to each other, sounds dominate: coughing, cooking, coupling, opening bags; music and news reports on a radio, the rattle and buzz of a restaurant. It’s dark in the city at night. We see down hallways, through doors, down alleys. Who sleeps with whom?Read More »

  • Tso-chi Chang – Dang ai lai de shi hou AKA When Love Comes (2010)

    2001-2010DramaTaiwanTso-chi Chang

    Quote:
    Laichun, her father and two mothers, uncle and grandfather are of different generations; thus they all think differently. Father is the family head, and because he believes he must continue on the family name ends up taking two wives. His first wife also feels the same way, and so allows the second wife. Laichun feels the abyss between her and her parents and ends up getting pregnant, but hits a wall when her boyfriend does not take any responsibility. When her father is hospitalized, she begins to understand her father and two mothers. She is finally growing up.Read More »

  • Ying Chang – Da xia mei hua lu AKA The Fantasy of Deer Warrior (1961)

    1961-1970AsianFantasyTaiwanYing Chang

    The happy lives of animals in the forest are stirred by the sudden attack of a pack of wolves. The Uncle Deer comes to rescue, and asks Birdy to notify his son, the deer. Sika Deer and the Deer are fighting for the Miss Deer inextricably. When the Deer rushed to his father, the Uncle Deer has died, and he asked his son to revenge before dying.Read More »

  • Nien-Jen Wu – Duo sang AKA A Borrowed Life (1994)

    1991-2000DramaNien-Jen WuTaiwan

    Director Wu Nien-Jen’s autobiographical portrait of his father and the family conflict that develops around him, set against the background of dramatic political change in Taiwan.

    Sega, a coal-miner who grew up in the years of Japanese colonial rule over Taiwan, is more strongly attracted to Japanese identity and culture than to the Mainland Chinese model imposed after the Kuomintang takeover in 1945. His son Wen-Jian on the other hand, typically for his generation, has a natural allegiance to Chinese culture. He is baffled by and impatient with his father’s fondness for the Japanese, a bafflement intensified by the harshly negative portrayal of Japanese imperialist ambitions and wartime atrocities he is exposed to at school.Read More »

  • Hsin-yao Huang – The Great Buddha + (2017)

    Drama2011-2020ArthouseHsin-yao HuangTaiwan

    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Pickle is a night security guard at a bronze statue factory. His colleague, Belly Bottom, works as a recycling collector during the day, and Pickle’s biggest pleasure in life is flicking through the porn magazines Belly Bottom collects in the small hours in the security room. Having late night snacks and watching television are an integral part of their dull lives. One day when the television is broken, their lives are changed forever. The story involves gods, the middle-aged men’s sexual desire and the conversation between ghosts and humans. Maybe the audience will find it preposterous, but isn’t life itself a farce?Read More »

Back to top button