Taiwanese cinema has lofty global ambitions, as evidenced by the deployment of the country’s big stars and the presentation of international co-production plans at Hong Kong Filmart this week.
Taiwanese talent Lee Lee-Zen, Yao Yi-Ti, and Jacob Wang brought their much-anticipated big-budgeted actioner 96 Minutes — set around a bomb crisis on a high-speed rail train running between Taipei and Kaohsiung — to a special spotlight showcase event Tuesday that featured three new Taiwanese films and a TV series. Meanwhile, one solo production and six co-productions involving filmmakers from the island have been part of the Hong Kong event’s ongoing film-financing sidebar.
Fresh on the heels of a similar promotional push at the Berlinale and at SXSW, the signal that the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA) wants to share with the filmmaking world is that the island is looking to make deals.
“At TAICCA, we are committed to fostering the industrialization and globalization of Taiwan’s cultural content industry,” TAICCA chairperson Homme Tsai told The Hollywood Reporter at Filmart. “We work across all stages of industry development—from nurturing talent and developing ideas to producing market-driven content, financial investment, and expanding internationally.”
96 Minutes (Wowing Entertainment Group) is being hailed as a film that is breaking new ground in Taiwan, both in terms of its subject, and in cash thrown in to fund the Hung Tzu-Hsuan-directed production.
Wowing Entertainment Group CEO Jeff Tsou brought the film — and those stars — to Hong Kong with the claim that its budget is the most spent on a Taiwanese production in the past decade, and an impressive sidebar story about the lengths his company have gone to get the production over the line.
“The budget is $4.5 million, which is pretty big for Taiwan,” said Tsou. “And this is just a genre that’s different for us. We want people to watch this film and say ‘That just doesn’t look like a Taiwanese move.’ When I met the director and heard his story, I just knew we had to make this film. We even built a high-speed railway set, so now we want everybody overseas know that for this kind of film, they can come and shoot in Taiwan.”
Other productions featured in the showcase were the Yan Yuyu-directed romance Penguin Girl (Each Other Films) and the Tsai Yin-chuan-directed juvenile crime thriller That Burning House (The Movie Bird Films), while the audience gathered inside the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center were also treated to a glimpse of the black comedy TV series A Controversial Entertainer (Eric Ace).
Among the Taiwanese productions and co-productions in the lineup of the Hong Kong Asia Film Financing Forum (HAF) sidebar this year is the one-time music video director Bill Chia’s debut feature Indigo Boy, a fantasy about two kids battling mental issues.
TAICCA was founded in 2019 with a mission to play the role of a “national-level cultural content industry accelerator.” Recent high-profile initiatives have included the Taiwan International Co-Funding Program 2.0 (TICP 2.0) – which comes with an investment ceiling of 49 percent – while the organization points to Tsuta Tetsuichiro’s acclaimed 19th century-set rural epic Black Ox (co-produced with Japan, France, and the U.S.) and the Busan award-winning documentary Our Second Home (co-produced with France and Hong Kong) as recent success stories.
“By working with domestic and international partners, we help the industry stay competitive in an evolving market. Our mission is to drive Taiwan’s content industry forward and enhance its international presence,” Tsai said.
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