TPNWCP Emerging Female Directors Series 新銳女導演系列 - 黃熙, 李宜珊, 陳定寧, 董淑緣 (2-Day Screening)

*As part of the 2021 Taiwan Post-New Wave Cinema Project, we kindly ask that you register to view these films through Eventbrite . (For UK email registrations only, such as: ac.uk, co.uk, org.uk, gov.uk etc.) Alternatively, please fill in and submit this form if you are currently residing in the UK OR a student of an UK institution but do not have a UK domain email address.

Please Note: Due to licencing regulations we are required to prioritise audiences based in the UK for these films. As such, only those who have registered with a .uk email address will be provided with screening links. Those registering with non-UK domain email addresses (e.g. gmail.com, hotmail.com, or edu.com.tw) will not receive links.

**Registration closes 11:59PM Monday 21st June. Links to view these films will be sent out at 12AM BST Tuesday 22nd June.

Synopses

Missing Johnny (Director Huang Xi)

2018 New York Asian Film Festival

2017 Busan International Film Festival

2017 Taipei Film Awards - Best Supporting Actor, Best New Talent, Best Screenplay, Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (Cinematography)

Qi moves from Hong Kong to Taipei alone, with only her pet parrot for company. There, she continually receives phone calls asking for a mysterious man called Johnny. She gradually bonds with her landlady’s autistic son and a local builder working for the landlady and living in his car as he rebuilds his life, the three brought together in a search when the parrot escapes.

“Missing” in the film’s title evokes both actual loss, and the pathos of thinking of someone or something. As the audience are piecing together the story, the characters are also trying to make themselves whole. Featuring scenes of movement throughout Taipei city, and an ambient electronic soundtrack from acclaimed composer, LIM Giong, the film recalls Millennium Mambo (2001) for a new generation, giving the audience a sense of both vibrancy and loss permeating the city. And moments of beauty too, when souls collide and connect serendipitously.

Babes' Not Alone (Director Lee Yi-shan)

2017 International Film Festical Rotterdam

2017 Golden Horse Awards - Best Live Action Short Film

2016 Kaohsiung Film Festival

On Liang’s 18th birthday, she is unable to celebrate with her boyfriend because she has to babysit her irresponsible brother’s baby. Refusing to lose her adolescence through a responsibility that shouldn’t be hers, Liang sets out on a “mission to reclaim youth” as she tries to return this crying bundle of joy to her brother.

The director tells an unconventional coming-of-age story with a unique feminine perspective. Through a teenage girl’s day-long journey with a baby, we follow a teenager who is left without choice and can only resort to her instincts to set things right when her family mistreat her. The film’s comic moments are richly-flavored with Taiwanese local culture and campy humor, such as a granny sitting at a breakfast table who can only eat when someone brings her dentures. At the same time, through keen observation, the director vividly and earnestly portrays her characters.

Lichao (Director Chen Ting-Ning)

2019 Kaohsiung Film Festival

2019 Women Make Waves International Film Festival, Taiwan

2019 Golden Harvest Awards & Short Film Festival

Xiao-An has been away from home for years. When her mother decides to sell the old apartment and move to the seaside to nurse her deteriorating mental health, Xiao-An returns to help organize the apartment. There, tangible traces of her childhood evoke comforting memories. But when Xiao-An discovers she is pregnant, differences with her mother lead to conflicts and arguments unearth secrets from her mother’s past. As their quarrels increase, the only fleeting peace comes with her mother’s medication. For brief moments, they might just be able to rediscover their love and find reconciliation.

Rising director Chen Ting-Ning uses a tense hand-held style to create an intimate picture of the daily life of a modern mother and daughter. There are numerous gripping scenes between the two, from a heated confrontation in the living room to a dance together under the kitchen light. These are intercut with flashbacks of the daughter’s childhood memories. In a heartfelt and moving way, the film captures a family’s intricate love-hate relationship.

Revenge of the Goat (Director Tung Shu-Yuan)

2018 Women Make Waves International Film Festival, Taiwan

2017 Golden Harvest Awards & Short Film Festival

A goat has a starring role in a film. The director believes it’s the film’s “spirit medium”. But production designer, Kong, and assistant, Wen, are struggling to get it to the hotel set on time. Across the city, a broke greengrocer strikes a secret deal with a casino owner to turn things around if he pulls the trigger in an assassination. As the rest of the film’s crew and the greengrocer converge on the hotel, confusion over a black briefcase will seal the destinies of everyone, all under the goat’s watchful eye.

The film is the director’s graduation project. With natural performances, multiple storylines, and fast-paced suspense, it offers witty observations on filmmaking, the workplace and society all wrapped up in an enthralling dark comedy. The film adopts a magical visual style, as when events are seen through the goat’s eyes, while the film leaves an intriguing open ending to let the viewers’ imagination run wild.

Director Biographies

Born in 1975, Director Huang Xi graduated from New York University with a B.F.A degree in Film & Television. Director Huang interned on the set of Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), and has subsequently worked with director Hou Hsiao-Hsien on many occasions since returning to Taiwan in 2011. Missing Johnny (2017) is her feature debut as director.

Born in 1985, Director Lee Yi-shan graduated from the Master’s Program of Applied Media Arts at National Taiwan University of Arts. Director Lee won a Golden Bell Award for Best Film Editing, and a Golden Horse Award for Best Short Feature Film with Babes’ Not Alone. She is now an independent feature film and documentary filmmaker.

Born in 1990, Director Chen Ting-Ning graduated from the Department of Motion Picture at National Taiwan University of Arts. Director Chen won the Student Slate Granfd Prize at the Golden Harvest Awards, and later directed a segment from the anthology film "Somewhere 4 Some Time," produced by Public Television Service (PTS) and TFAI (Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute). Many of Director Chen's films reflect her own life experiences and tell women's stories in Taiwanese families.

Born in 1994, Director Tung Shu-Yuan graduated from the Department of Motion Pictures and Video at Kun Shan University. Director Tung was the director’s assistant and trailer editor for the Golden Horse Awards Best Short Film Babes’ Not Alone (2017), and is now an independent producer and documentary editor.

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: bc18@soas.ac.uk

Sponsor: Taiwan Ministry of Culture & Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute X Taiwan Docs X Taiwan Cinema Toolkit & Spotlight Taiwan