MOVIE POPULAR TAIWAN

Synopsis

Cheerful delivery boy Tian Kuo (Eddie Peng) delivers lunchboxes to a local hearing-impaired swimming team. He holds a torch for hearing-impaired cutie Yang Yang (Ivy Chen), who's often at the pool to cheer on her older sister Xiao Peng (Michelle Chen). Yang Yang wholeheartedly supports Xiao Peng's dream of competing in the Deaflympics, even if it means working multiple jobs and giving all her time to her sister. Yang Yang slowly falls for Tian Kuo's goofy charms, but the burgeoning romance opens a rift in the sisters' relationship.

Synopsis

12-year-old Mei grew up with her grandparents in the mountains, but now lives with her parents in the city. Her parents constantly fight and she ignored at home. Mei withdraws into her own world and imagination. One day Mei meets transfer student Lee. Mei takes a liking to Lee who seems as withdrawn to the world as Mei. After Mei saves Lee from bullies their friendship becomes real. As Mei home life worsens and her parents announce their announce, Mei turns to Lee and plan their escape ...

Synopsis

"So you've caught a ghost..." Armed with a newly invented device called the Menger Sponge, a team of scientists - led by enigmatic Hashimoto - captures the energy of a ghost child. This child, isolated in an empty flat, moves his lips to words no one understands. In an effort to learn more about the ghost they enlist special agent Ye Qi-Tung who's able to read lips. Special agent Ye is part of the JCCU (Joint Crime Crackdown Unit) and is gifted with extraordinary powers of eyesight. Ye accepts the assignment when he realises that this is an opportunity for him to learn about life after death and perhaps to find clues of his own dying mother who's suffering from ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Scierosis). In order to learn more about the ghost child's background they set the ghost child loose for Ye to follow...

Synopsis

Ashin has spent his enitre life training for the national team in gymnastics. His mother believes his work will amount to nothing and asks his high school coach to take him off the team. Ashin then quits the sport entirely. He quickly falls in with wrong crowd and finds himself in a lot of trouble. Ashin leaves his small hometown of Yilan. Will he ever get back to the sport that he loves?

Synopsis

Paul's office's fax machine often receives random auction info. Under great encouragement from his friends, he went to inquire at the auction address and discovered that the site is a new residence which has just been decorated, but that the owner, Fran, has put a tag on every furniture and plans to auction them all off. Coincidentally, Paul's office has been rented for over two years, and it's empty, without anything much in it. He knew that the furniture of Fran's was bought together with her fiance Robert for their new home. Under the lure of the romance behind the furniture, he bought every piece of Fran's furniture. -Translated by ethidda

Synopsis

Best friends Meng Kerou and Lin Yuezhen are enjoying their high school days until Yuezhen persuades her comrade to do her a favour by chatting up Yuezhen's new crush, Zhang Shihao (Wilson Chen Bo-lin). All is well until he falls for Kerou instead. Adding to her dilemma are her secret feelings for her best friend and, consequently, Kerou's questions about her sexuality.

Synopsis

Aga, a band singer, returns to Hengchun with frustration. Tomoko is a Japanese model assigned to organise a local warm-up band for the Japanese superstar's beach concert. Together with five other ordinary Hengchun residents who never expected to be anybody in life, they formed an impossible band.

Synopsis

Based on a short story of the same name written in the 1950s by the Taiwanese intellectual and democracy activist Bo Yang, Dragon Eye Congee tells the story of a second-generation Taiwanese American, Shaun Tam, who, since childhood, has repeatedly dreamt about the same woman in the same scenes, complete with a haunting melody and the fragrant smell of rice congee with dried longan. He is totally mystified about the significance of the dream until he comes to Taiwan for the first time on a business trip and stumbles upon an old house and a woman played by Fann Wong, resembling those in his dreams. Eventually, he realizes that the woman was his lover in a previous lifetime in Taiwan.

Synopsis

Senior Master Chef Chu lives in a large house in Taipei with his three unmarried daughters, Jia-Jen, a chemistry teacher converted to Christianity, Jia-Chien, an airline executive, and Jia-Ning, a student who also works in a fast food restaurant. Life in the house revolves around the ritual of an elaborate dinner each Sunday, and the love lives of all the family members.

Synopsis

A Japanese tourist takes refuge from a rainstorm inside a once-popular movie theater, a decrepit old barn of a cinema that is screening a martial arts classic, King Hu's 1966 "Dragon Inn." Even with the rain bucketing down outside, it doesn't pull much of an audience -- and some of those who have turned up are less interested in the movie than in the possibility of meeting a stranger in the dark

Synopsis

The film revolves around an orphaned boy who grew up in a kung fu university and becomes a talented basketball player. The youngster, Fang Shi Jie (Jay Chou) grew up at the Kung-Fu School. He practiced excellent Kung-Fu and is equipped with good skills. When he is punished by his principal to stay on the streets for one night, he demonstrates his incredible accuracy to a down-and-out hustler, Wang Li. On the pretext of helping him search for his family, Wang Li invites him to play basketball at 'First University' as the new star of its basketball team. Meanwhile, Wang Li capitalizes on media interest in Shi-Jie to make money via interviews and news articles...

Synopsis

The story was about high school student Ye, who studied in the school his father taught. Ye’s piano skill was above others. On the first day of school, while walking around the piano rooms, he heard an unknown and beautiful melody, played by Lu. From then on, the two were always together. However, Lu seemed mysterious and when Ye tried to get to know her more, she always brushed off his questions by saying that it was a secret. There was a misunderstanding between the two of them, and subsequently Lu never came to school anymore. Ye was heartbroken. But the more he tried to find out, he realized that things were not as they seemed.

Synopsis

When Jade, a web-cam girl visits Takeko's tattoo studio she becomes entranced with the image of the spider lily and with Takeko as well. In order to get closer to the object of her desire, Jade asks Takeko to give her the same lily tattoo, challenging Takeko's monastic existence and opening up memories which threaten to tear the two women apart

Synopsis

Yvette (Enno) is literally a faint-hearted schoolgirl songster whose poetic soul makes her the apple of her mother's eye and popular throughout the student body. Overexerting herself while performing at a school concert, Yvette collapses and is sent to the sick bay. Reviving with her best friend Wendy (Hannah Han Lin) by her side, the two schoolgirls witness the arrival of fellow student Jimmy (Bryant Chang from "Eternal Summer") and his beloved Miss Xiu (Ke Huanju Ke). Miss Xiu tends to Jimmy's bloodied hand, which is studded with glass shards following a tantrum punch through a windowpane. The comely teacher has had to end her affair with Jimmy or lose her job. Miss Xiu is prepared to move on, but the smitten schoolboy is going through the emotional ringer. All of this makes Jimmy oblivious to the interest of girls his own age. Wendy is attracted to the lovestruck boy, but will clearly go with soccer obsessed Japanese exchange student Akira (Dean Fujioka) if he makes his move first.

Synopsis

Taipei Exchanges (第36個故事) directed by first time director Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全) brings us a wonderful movie set in Taipei that explores the theme of the value of things. In a city where capitalism and money dominates daily life the movie imagines an alternative of barter, storytelling and dreaming. The story begins with Doris (Kwai Lun Mei ) who opens a cafe with her sister Josie. In the beginning Doris is business minded, while Josie is more idealistic. However the process of trading things not for their monetary value but for their meaning slowly transforms Doris.

Synopsis

Tang (Muo) goes on a trip to Taitung to record the sounds of nature, hoping the tape may save his relationship with his girlfriend who is leaving him. What he does not know, is that she has already moved away and another girl, Yun (Kwai), has moved into that apartment. Yun is trapped in a hopeless love triangle, and troubled by all the issues she faces in life. After listening to the tape that Tang sent, she feels as if the kindness of nature is calling her, and travels to Taitung to find the mysterious man who sends her the tape. On the other hand, Tsai (Chia), a psychiatrist struggling in a failed marriage, suddenly realizes that he needs to let things go after helping a patient with extramarital affairs. He leaves everything behind and goes to Taitung to search for his ex-lover. The three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before.

Synopsis

Three love stories in three different eras (1966, 1911 and 2005) in Hou's characteristic, philosophical and aesthetic style. The different couples are each played convincingly by Shu Qi and Chang Chen. A blessing in disguise. The film was planned as a trilogy to be made by three directors. When the production could not be completed, the Taiwanese master decided to make all three parts himself. As a result, Hou forced himself to film three different stories in three different ways, so the viewer is treated to an unparalleled display of versatility. The three stories are situated in three different periods. And each time, Shu Qi and Chang Chen play the female and male leads in a tragic love story. The first part, A Time for Love, is closest to Hou's previous work and is set in the 1960s, in his youth. It is a very contained melodrama in which each detail falls into place. The last part, A Time for Youth, is set in today's Taipei. It shows the city as a hotspot, supported by the calming music of Lim Giong. This music and his mood will also be presented live by VJ Sunny Hu at the festival. The middle section, A Time for Freedom, is set furthest in the past and could be described as the tour de force of the three. It is set at the beginning of the 20th century, during the occupation of Taiwan by Japan. It has the style of a silent film from that period. Not entirely planned: the real reason was that the actors had trouble speaking classic Mandarin. Another blessing in disguise.

Synopsis

When a young street vendor with a grim home life meets a girl on her way to Paris, they forge an instant connection. He changes all the clocks in Taipei to French time; as he watches Francois Truffaut's Les 400 Coups, she has a strange encounter with its now-aging star.

Synopsis

Yi Yi is an epic story about the Jiang family seen through three different perspectives: the father NJ (Nien-Jen Wu), the son Yang-Yang (Jonathan Chang), and the daughter, Ting-Ting (Kelly Lee). The three-hour piece starts with a wedding, concludes with a funeral, and contemplates all areas of human life in-between with profound humour, beauty and poignancy. The other Taiwanese cast members include Elaine Jin as NJ's wife, Min-Min, Su-Yun Ko as NJ's former love Sherry, Hsi-Sheng Chen as Ah-Di, and Pang Chang Yu as Fatty. The film also stars Japanese comedian Issei Ogata as a Japanese software mogul, Ota.