Taiwan International Documentary Festival 2019 on Tour, Film Screenings of The Mountain and I Didn't Dare to Tell You

Dr Chi Ta-Wei (紀大偉)

Thanks to the supervision of the Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development, MOC (Ministry of Culture) and the guidance of Taiwan Film Institute, Dr. Ta-wei Chi will screen and discuss three 1960s Taiwanese films in London. The three newly unearthed films were premiered in the program “Taiwan Spectrum│Imaging the Avant-garde: Film Experiments in 1960s.” Qquickly sold out in Taiwan International Documentary Festival in 2018, these rare films are widely discussed for their 1960s ambience, avant-garde character, and emphasis on the opposition between the aspiring students, punished and disciplined in Foucauldian words,’ free spirits and the oppressive educational system of the martial law period. Or in Foucauldian words, these films embody what “punish and discipline” can be. All of the three films happen to converge on Mou Tun-fei (1941- ), an often overlooked director from Taiwan. He wins a nefarious reputation for his graphically explicit films in the 1970s and 1980s. However, on the onset of his filmmaking career, he is noted for his left-wing and poetic films such as I Didn't Dare to Tell Him (1969) and The End of the Track (1970), and for his suave appearance in the documentary The Mountain (1966), made by Richard Yao-chi Chen, one of the most reputed documentary filmmaker from Taiwan.

Whereas at King’s College Dr. Chi will present The End of the Track (Dir. Mou Tun-fei, 1970), at SOAS he will show The Mountain (Dir. Richard Yao-chi Chen, 1966) and I Didn't Dare to Tell Him (Dir. Mou Tun-fei, 1966).

Film Screening 1 at SOAS - The Mountain

Synopsis

The Mountain

上山（數位修復版） The Mountain (Digital Restoration)

陳耀圻Richard Yao-chi CHEN｜台灣Taiwan｜1966｜DCP (Orig:16mm)｜B&W｜19 min

就讀藝專的黃永松、牟敦芾、黃貴蓉上山遊玩，三人表達出各自藝術抱負、黨員才能領獎學金、對越戰看法云云，以 “California Dreamin'” 〉一曲貫穿全片，吐露出時代苦悶。本片膠卷封存在UCLA某教授車庫數十年，50年後由國影中心數位修復。

The director follows three art college students HUANG Yong-song, MOU Tun-fei, and HUANG Gui-rong as they enjoy an excursion into the mountains. As the song ‘California Dreamin’ plays, the three talk about their artistic ideals, how only KMT party members were eligible for scholarships, and their view on the Vietnam War.

Film Screening 2 at SOAS - I Didn't Dare to Tell Him

Synopsis

I Didn't Dare to Tell You

不敢跟你講 I Didn't Dare to Tell You

牟敦芾MOU Tun-fei｜台灣Taiwan｜1969｜DCP (Orig:35mm)｜B&W｜78 min

某位學生因父親欠了賭債，晚上瞞著父親偷偷打工賺錢，因故在課堂上頻打瞌睡，國小老師（歸亞蕾飾）介入調查，引發一連串的家庭風暴。當年上映時遭受議論，片尾詭異的升學鏡頭透露政宣痕跡。此為導演自藝專畢業後首部作品，現存之唯一膠卷拷貝其中一本已佚失。

A student secretly works a night job to pay off his father’s gambling debts, and as a result constantly dozes off during classes in the day. When the teacher investigates, a series of family disputes ensues. This is MOU’s first film after graduating from Taiwan Art College. When it was first shown, it drew much criticism and debate.

Speaker's Bio

Ta-wei Chi, PhD Comparative Literature UCLA, is currently associate professor at the Graduate Institute of Taiwan Literature at National Chengchi University, Taiwan, where he teaches queer theory and disability studies. His science fiction _Membranes_ is translated and available on the French and Japanese Amazons. His award-winning monograph on historicizing homosexuality in Taiwanese literature was published in 2017.

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: bc18@soas.ac.uk

Sponsor: Ministry of Culture, Taiwan and Taiwan Film Institute