You can tell when a film festival is getting bigger and grabbing the attention of the whole city when you walk around the streets and its presence is almost everywhere – in newspapers, on the TV, in outdoor advertisements. Of course visiting Taipei during the Golden Horse Film Festival may not give visitors the same feeling as being in Venice, Cannes or Berlin during these prestigious international movie events, but the most important Taiwanese movie event, the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival is gaining a reputation for itself and is already well known among Taiwanese and Asian audiences.
During the whole of November, three venues in the centre of Taipei devoted all their attention to cinema: Shing Kong Cineplex, Spring Center and Breeze Center, the headquarters of the Golden Horse Film Festival.
This time the event celebrated Hong Kong´s Ann Hui (許鞍華), awarding her with the best director award for her movie “A Simple Life” (桃姐). Andy Lau (劉德華) and Deanie Ip (葉德嫻) who played the starring roles in the film, also won the best actor and actress awards.
The movie tells the story of Chung Chun-Tao (Deanie Ip), a woman who has worked as an ‘amah’ – a domestic servant – for the Leung family for more than 60 years. Roger (Andy Lau), the only family member living in Hong Kong, stays with her even after she suffers a stroke.
“I am afraid I’m going to have a stroke,” said Ann Hui, joking with the situation as she accepted her award in November last year. “I’m very excited to get this award. In fact, the film was a gift from the very beginning”, added the director.
Deanie Ip, the 63 year-old actress who also received the best actress award for the same performance at the Venice Film Festival back in September, thanked her film companions for the success.
“I am very thankful to Andy and Ann Hui, who gave me this opportunity, and to be so lucky at this old age, thank you both.”
Taiwanese director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) was also a very happy man at the Golden Horse Film Festival Awards ceremony. His work, “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” (賽德克‧巴萊), was distinguished as the best film. The movie tells the story of Taiwan’s indigenous Seediq tribes, which launched an armed uprising in 1930 against the Japanese occupation.
“Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale” is one of the most expensive films ever made in Taiwan. With a budget of US$25 million dollars, the movie was a risky project.
“I know our production was very huge, and somehow our ability is not there yet to support such a huge production, and we have strived to finish this movie,” acknowledged the director. “There were things that I could have done better, and I will. Next time I will be better”, he added humbly.
Taiwan has a very strong cinema tradition. The Taiwanese New Wave Cinema put the island on the world map during the 1980s and 1990s with writers and directors such as Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-Hsien. In its most recent edition, to celebrate the local industry, the festival invited 20 Taiwanese directors for the project “10+10”. They were invited to each make a 5-minute short film based on the theme “Uniqueness of Taiwan”. The result, which was the opening film for this edition of the Golden Horse Film Festival, was a series of short tales about Taiwan, its people, its geography and its very strong characteristics.
“It’s an unprecedented project”, said Hou Hsiao-Hsien, chairman of the festival.
Overall, the festival screened almost 200 movies from several countries, also with a strong presence of films from Mainland China and Hong Kong. Film-makers Sylvia Chang, Makoto Shinkai and Bela Tarr were among the guests and Hou Hsiao-Hsien strongly believes that they can be important to the local industry.
“The Taiwanese film industry has been enjoying a renaissance this year and we truly look forward to the inspiration and vitality coming with the films and filmmakers from abroad.”
