Latest update October 21st, 2015 12:41 PM
Golden Horse FPP 2015 Projects Announced
2015 saw a great year for Taiwan cinema, in quality and quantity, in critical reception and box office sales.
In this season of achievements, Taipei Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (FPP) attempts to raise the bar even higher. Ten selected projects to be directed by Matt WU Chung-Tien, LIEN Yi-Chi, CHEN Hung-I, Gavin LIN, SHIAO Li-Shiou, KO Chen-Nien, Zoe LING, TSAI Tsung-Han, Shaun SU, QUAH Boon-Lip, are sure to redefine what it means to be “Made in Taiwan.”
They are to engage the audience in a sincere, passionate dialogue through classic “genre” filmmaking.
Celebrated actor Matt WU Chung-Tien first climbed into the director’s chair in 2014 with Stairway (2014 Golden Horse Award nomination for Best Short Film) and then again in 2015 with feature debut One Night Only, starring Golden Horse Award-winning actor Aaron KWOK. In Chang-an Building, WU presents a window on Taipei and its humble denizens as they live through the economic booms and busts of recent history, dwelling on the lives of two odd-couple families who navigate the ups-and-downs of those storied “golden era.”
Invigorated by recent success at the Golden Bell Awards with the TV mini-series Wake Up, director SHIAO Li-Shiou now plunges into his new project Crazy in Love, a dark tale about unfathomable human lust and desire. When a women’s magazine editor and columnist meets an adroit plastic surgeon, their insecurities turn a modern love story into a chilling “anti-fairy tale.” SHIAO’s vision is in good company alongside previous efforts by Greener Grass Film Production, including the lauded TV mini-series The Days We Stared at the Sun and The Tag-Along, 2015 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Closing Film.
After receiving a nod for Best Short Film at the Golden Horse Awards with Horse with No Name and winning Best Screenplay at the Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films with Under the Water, KO Chen-Nien is ready for her feature debut. The Village, a fable set within an isolated but devout community, dances between a criminal’s redemption and an unsuspecting death, along the ambiguous line between crime and punishment, and around the questioning of faith and forgiveness. The future of The Village may be foreshadowed by Atom Cinema’s well-received past, which includes award-garnering works like Zinnia Flower, Paradise in Service, and GF*BF.
Zoe LIN’s first short film, Time Lapse, won The Golden Harvest Award for Outstanding Film. Now she turns her attention to Secrets in the Hot Springs, about three misfits who form an unlikely alliance to survive their adventures in a haunted hot springs hotel. Combining screams with laughs, adrenaline rushing with tear-jerking moments, this inventive horror/comedy about finding the courage to live your dreams has already found a fan and producer in Golden Horse Award-winning director WANG Toon.
Having nabbed a Golden Horse Award for Best Original Screenplay (Winds of September) and nominated for Golden Horse Award for Best Short Film (My Grandma), TSAI Tsung-Han makes his directorial debut with the feature-length Dr. Handsome, a feel-good comedy radiant with positive energy. After a fateful accident, a wealthy and good-looking surgeon suddenly finds himself a country doctor, returning to the humble roots he tried hard to leave behind. A series of good Samaritan acts brings the good doctor to his senses, however, when he sees that a handsome life is reflected in acts of kindness and generosity.
Audiences may be waiting with bated breath for the latest effort by two-time Taipei Film Festival Best Animation winner Shaun SU (Contagion; Checkmate). An intriguing fantasy, Please Take My Breath Away allows its characters to wander between the edge of life and death, existence and void, against the luminal backdrop of a movie ready to be captured on film and a script that disappeared into thin air. SU’s new project is backed by Rachel CHEN, co-producer of the acclaimed box office hit Touch of the Light.
QUAH Boon-Li is no mystery man, having won the Golden Bell Awards for Best Director and Best TV Movie and received a nomination for Best Short Film at the Golden Horse Awards for his first directorial effort, The Free Man. QUAH can count on making himself heard with his feature debut Silence Killing. Starting with a missing girl, this psychological thriller clues in the fear, detachment, and isolation of modern society by unveiling the secrets and truths behind the locked doors of an aging apartment complex.
CHEN Hung-I, named Best Director at the Taipei Film Festival for Honey Pupu, is know for his signature visual designs and stylized visions. Terrorizers in Love, CHEN’s blood-soaked and ostentatious thriller, will prove to be no exception in this suspenseful and biting murder mystery that chews on the contrasting philosophies of politics and art.
Known for his warm and steady stories, Gavin LIN’s 2015 dramedy Welcome to Happy Days won Best of Festival Award at the Guam Film Festival. His next challenge is Ironman Triathlon, an inspiring true story about a woman who overcomes a lifetime of obstacles in a demonstration of the strength and capacity of the human spirit.
Make Up and Sweet Alibis are just a couple of earlier experiments with genres by LIEN Yi-Chi before his Return to Hero’s Island, a genre-hybrid of sci-fi and black comedy set during the historical Communist/KMT era. On a historic battlefield in Kinmen, an encounter between soldiers and cyborgs sets off a skirmish that pits brothers against brothers. This may seem like a strange and fantastic tale, but it details the all-too-real atrocities and absurdities of war.
The 2015 selected projects will make their appearances in Taipei City between November 17th and November 19th, at this year’s Golden Horse FPP.
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