The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (TGHFF) is set to open with a double bill of Chong Keat Aun’s Snow In Midsummer and acclaimed art director Hwarng Wern-ying’s directorial debut Be With Me, with Bowie Tsang-produced omnibus Tales Of Taipei as the closing film.
Both opening films took part in Golden Horse Film Project Promotion project market in 2020 and will have their Asian premieres at TGHFF. The world premiere for Snow In Midsummer will be at the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, which begins today.
Malaysian director Chong describes his second film as “a story unveiling historical scar”. The historical drama weaves mythical belief with street opera and spans nearly half a century starting from the violent riot in Malaysia in 1969.
It is a co-production between Malaysia’s Janji Pictures, Taiwan’s Swallow Wings Films and Singapore’s August Pictures. The cast is led by Pearlly Chua, Wan Fang and Rexen Cheng. Director Chong was named best new director at the Golden Horse Awards in 2020 for his feature debut The Story Of Southern Islet.
Executive produced by auteur Hou Hsiao-hsien, Be With Me marks the directorial debut of Golden Horse-winning art director and costume designer Hwarng, who is a long-time collaborator of Hou, having worked on many of his films such as Flowers Of Shanghai and The Assassin. She was also the supervising art director on Martin Scorsese’s Silence, which was filmed in Taiwan.
The film is inspired by Hwarng’s own family, following a female protagonist as she returns to her hometown to take care of her sick father and recalls her childhood with her late grandfather. Golden Bell Awards best actress Ariel Lin stars along with Vic Chou, Ethan Juan and Chang Hsiao-chuan.
“Memory and yearning are the creative source for this film,” said Hwarng in a statement issued by TGHFF. “Xuantian Shandi [from the Chinese film title] embodies the faith of my grandfather, the god worshipped by the family over six generations. Through the 100-year of ups and downs in Taiwan’s history, we realize the meaning of life. I hope this film will touch the audience and bring back the strength within.”
Closing film Tales Of Taipei, which will make its world premiere at TGHFF, is a collective work of 10 stories about love by a group of diverse directors such as Chong Keat Aun from Malaysia, Joseph Hsu Chen-chieh, Yin Chen-hao and Amy Ma from Taiwan, Wong Yee-lam from Hong Kong, Rachid Hami from France and Oscar-nominated Pawo Choyning Dorji from Bhutan.
The cast includes Sammi Cheng, Liu Kuan-ting, Lee Sin-je, Kuo Shu-yau, Stephy Tang, Tsai Chen-nan, Ethan Juan, Karena Lam, Sandrine Pinna, Karim Leklou, Lin Ju, Caitlin Fang and Chen Shu-fang.
Producer Tsang said: “This is not an easy project to accomplish, requiring 10 times of efforts for everything. Everyone involved with the project holds an unmatched passion for cinema and for this land of ours.”
TGHFF will run from November 9-26. This year marks the 60th anniversary of the Golden Horse Awards.
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