MADE IN TAIWAN [2017]

MADE IN TAIWAN [2017]

THU 11 – SUN 14 MAY

Photo credit: The Assassin Hou Hsiao-Hsien, 2015. Courtesy of Park Circus / Studiocanal

For the inaugural edition of the Chinese-Language Film Festival Ireland – Made in Taiwan – we are honoured to welcome Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao- Hsien and his longtime collaborator, screenwriter Chu Tien-Wen.

As an infant, Hou fled with his family to Taiwan from Guangdong Province to escape the Chinese Civil War in 1948. Since directing his début feature Cute Girl in 1980, he has enjoyed a prolific career winning awards at Venice, Berlin, and Cannes where he was awarded Best Director for The Assassin (2015). Hou’s films offer an intimate and uncompromising radiograph of Taiwan’s history of change. Long shots and largely static camera positions make his films instantly recognisable. Melancholic and impressionistic, his work is powerfully immersive, filled with nuance and intuition.

The festival features a programme of four rare screenings spanning Hou’s career. Fuelled by memories from childhood A Time to Live, A Time to Die (FIPRESCI Prize, Berlinale 1985) is both autobiographical and universal. The recently restored Boys from Fengkuei (1983) reflects on Hou’s youth, with gangs on the streets of southern port city Kaohsiung, while A City of Sadness (Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, 1989) is rooted in a haunting period of 20th century Taiwan history, and The Assassin (2015) is Hou’s gift to the martial arts (wuxia) film, set in 9th century China.

We are thrilled to be hosting a masterclass with Hou and Chu Tien-Wen, as well as post-screening Q&As.

The festival will also present six short animation films; a special screening of the remastered wuxia martial arts classic A Touch of Zen (1971), the first Chinese-language film to win at Cannes; and Irish premieres of Hui-chen Huang’s documentary Small Talk (Teddy Award, Berlin Film Festival 2017), and The Road to Mandalay by Midi Z (Fedeora Award Best Film, Venice Film Festival 2016).

The Festival organising committee would like to thank the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of China (Taiwan), Taiwan Film Institute, Irish Film Institute, Screen Training Ireland, and Professor Chris Berry for their invaluable contribution to this event.

— Festival Organising Committee
(Yvonne Kennedy, Maria O’Brien, Marie-Pierre Richard)