MCLC: new Taiwan documentaries

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: new Taiwan documentaries
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Source: Taipei Times (6/29/13):
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2013/06/29/2003565904

FILM: Real people, real lives

The nation’s filmmakers will release several documentaries over the next
six months that tell stories about the lives of inspiring peopleBy Enru
Lin  /  Staff reporter

Meet the next poster child for Taiwan’s filmmaking industry: the
documentary.

Twelve made-in-Taiwan films are slated for mainstream release between July
11 and year’s end, according to the Ministry of Culture (MOC). But with
the exception of Jay Chou’s (周杰倫) action musical The Rooftop (天台), none
of 
the films are touting originality. Two — As the Winds Blow (戀戀海灣) and
Apolitical Romance (對面的女孩殺過來) — are classic rom-coms, while Soul (失
魂) is 
horror with the blood and cadavers you expect.

On the season’s roster, the most popular genre is the documentary and
docudrama, which have minimal creative license.

“The documentary needs no fancy special effects — the director simply uses
the camera to capture the actual story,” said Chu Wen-chin (朱文清),
director 
of the MOC’s Bureau of Audiovisual and Music Industry Development (影視及流行
音樂產
業局).

BOX OFFICE HIT

But the genre seems to do well with local audiences, Chu added. “Taiwan’s
movie-goers have embraced it, and documentaries have enjoyed great box
office success,” he said.

This year, that success could be ready to repeat itself. 27 Degrees
Celsius — Loaf Rocks (世界第一麥方ㄆㄤ) surpassed 10,000 pre-sale tickets
three 
weeks before opening day. The film, about a baker who flourished overseas
after rejection at home, is a bluntly rendered fable of how diligence can
overcome political and economic adversity.

The other documentaries tell different stories, toward an equally
uplifting end. Tang Chen-yu’s (唐振瑜) Battle Spirit (戰酒) shows how the
people of Kinmen County rose from poverty by the careful cultivation of a
new crop, sorghum, which is used to distill the fiery kaoliang liquor.

Bridge Over Troubled Water (拔一條河) is about children who win at
tug-of-war 
even after their mountain hamlet is devastated by Typhoon Morakot, and
Rock Me to the Moon (一首搖滾上月球) tells of six middle-aged fathers who
tend to 
their disabled children and, in their spare time, form a rock band.

Yang Li-chou (楊力州), director of Bridge Over Troubled Water, thinks of the
film as his response to a deepening need.

“It seems to me that today’s Taiwan desperately needs to stand up,” said
Yang. “After Typhoon Morakot, the adults [of the village] couldn’t see a
future anymore, but some children found a way to get back up on their
feet. My documentary wants to encourage something like that,” he said.