Berlin 2022: Taiwan hot projects

Looking back on 2021, the market share of local Taiwanese productions rose to 24.4%, up from 16.8% in 2020 and 6.9% in 2019. The surge was driven largely by the performance of romantic drama Man In Love, which grossed $14.5m (nt$405m) to become the second highest-grossing film of 2021 after Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the sixth highest-grossing local film of all time.

Both Man In Love and Spider-Man: No Way Home delivered $39.5m (nt$1.1bn) in total, making Sony Pictures Releasing the top studio by market share in Taiwan in 2021. Man In Love, which saw its lead actors Roy Chiu and Hsu Wei-Ning tie the knot in real life eight months after the release, earned an additional $41.5m (rmb264m) in China before landing on Netflix in August 2021.

Like Man In Love, most of 2021’s top local films were released during the early part of the year, before Taiwan’s cinemas were closed in late May for the first time during the pandemic. Other local hits included Gatao: The Last Stray, which took $5.8m (nt$161m), Listen Before You Sing with $3m (nt$83m), The Soul with $1.8m (nt$50m) and I Missed You with $1.3m (nt$37m).

Cinemas reopened in mid-July, but local films did not pick up momentum until November’s release of fantasy romance Till We Meet Again, which became the second highest-grossing local film of 2021 with $9.2m (nt$257m).

Two Golden Horse Awards winners also performed well around this period. The Falls, which won four awards including best picture, grossed $1.3m (nt$36m), marking a box-office best for director Chung Mong-Hong, whose A Sun was shortlisted last year in the Oscars’ international feature category. Meanwhile American Girl, which won three awards including best new director, took $600,000 (nt$17m). The year-end box office was further lifted by the Christmas release of horror film Deified, which added $500,000 (nt$13m).

At time of writing, the official box-office figures for 2022’s local Chinese New Year releases are not available due to the weeklong holiday.

Taiwanese sellers and producers are once again taking part in EFM online thanks to the support of the government’s Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

At Your Service

Dir. Lee Chia-Hua
This documentary focuses on a group of athletes who try to realise their dreams through sports. The story follows Lin Sheng-Hsiang, a former athlete and now a coach, who dedicates himself and all the resources he can muster to train underprivileged children for the modern pentathlon, a sport with little profile in Taiwan. Lee has directed several award-winning documentaries including For More Sun and its sequel; The Spirit Of 8, which received a special mention at Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival in 2005; and Me And My Condemned Son, nominated for best documentary at the Golden Horse Awards in 2020. Contact: James Liu, Joint Entertainment

Come Back, My Child

Dir. Jasmine Lee
Executive produced by producer/editor Liao Ching-Sung (The Assassin), this documentary tracks three elderly women from Taiwan, China and the US who are drawn together by the bond they develop with inmates of a maximum-security prison in New York. The film is about the power of women as they face adversity, and looks into the cultural background and desperate conditions of Chinese illegal migrants in the US. Lee’s Money And Honey (2011) travelled to more than 50 festivals, winning awards including a distribution prize at Busan. Contact: Albert Yao, Swallow Wings

Goddamned Asura

Dir. Lou Yi-An
Lou’s latest film examines the tragedy of random acts of killing, through six characters whose lives become intertwined when a shooting occurs in a crowded night market. The ensemble cast includes Wang Yu-Xuan (named best supporting actress at the 2021 Golden Horse Awards for her role in this film), Mo Tzu-Yi (Dear Tenant) and 18-year-old Joseph Huang (Dear Ex). The Taiwan release is scheduled for March. This is Lou’s fourth feature; his directing credits include drama series Roseki, which won five prizes at the 2018 Golden Bell Awards. Contact: Eric Chou, Content Digital Film 

Mama Boy

Dir. Arvin Chen
The romantic drama stars Kai Ko (Till We Meet Again) as a shy young man who finds himself attracted to an older single mother, played by Vivian Hsu (Little Big Women), who works in a sex hotel and has a 20-year-old son. Aileen Li (Detention) produced, and the film was shot by Asia-based cinematographer Jake Pollock (The Shadow Play, Soulmate). US-born Taiwanese director Chen’s feature debut Au Revoir Taipei and follow-up Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? both premiered in Berlin — the former in Forum in 2010 and the latter in Panorama in 2013.  Contact: June Wu, Distribution Workshop 

Quarantini

Dirs. Lu Po-Shun, Chuang Shiang-An, Lin Ya-Yu
This anthology feature helmed by three emerging directors and composed of two fiction and one non-fiction stories was the opening film of Kaohsiung Film Festival last October. All three segments — ‘When Henge Meets Crescent’, ‘Be My Quarantine’ and ‘Lockdown Diary’ — were filmed in Kaohsiung using the theme of ‘quarantini’. The phrase refers to the joy of a Martini cocktail after a quarantine period has ended, inspired by the ‘Martini Shot’ on a film set, marking a drinks session once the final shot of the day is in the can. The project is backed by the Kaohsiung Film Archive and Taiwan’s Public Tele­vision Service. Contact: Patricia Chen, Kaohsiung Film Archive

Shiro — Hero Of Heroes

Dirs. Lin Yu-Chun, Liu Yu-Shu, Chuang Yung-Hsin
Based on the popular Jhuge Shiro comic series published in the late 1950s, this 3D family-friendly animation is produced by IT entrepreneur-turned-film producer Yeh Lung as a tribute to his late father Yeh Hong-Chia, a pioneer in Taiwan’s comic-book history. In 2019, the younger Yeh set up the Jhuge Shiro Foundation for the promotion of his father’s comics, including the titular character who is considered Taiwan’s first comic-book hero. In the animation, young swordsman Jhuge Shiro fights the Demon Society as they try to seize the precious Dragon and Phoenix swords and keep a princess hostage. The film was a Chinese New Year release.
Contact: Sin Wang, Activator

Waiting For My Cup Of Tea

Dir. Phoebe Jan
Novelist Jan’s directorial debut is a coming-of-age romantic drama adapted from her 2001 bestselling novel of the same name. The story of unexpected love on a cold Valentine’s Day sees an undergraduate student share a cup of tea with a young man whose date has failed to show up. Produced by Chang Sanling, the film features a young cast including Ellen Wu (HBO Asia’s Dream Raider) and singers Simon Lien and Alex Chou, both making their film debuts. It was released locally over Christmas. Prior to directing, Jan worked as a screenwriter and art director. Contact: Desmond Yang, MandarinVision