A new book charts the blossoming of Taiwan’s cinema from the dawn of the democratic era to the present day.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/10/21
By: Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley

Taiwan New Cinema (TNC) is a cinematic movement that emerged in the 1980s just as democracy was introduced to the island. Its impact cannot be overstated: TNC not only expanded cultural frontiers, but also made possible multiple and alternative onscreen representations of Taiwanese identities and historiographies. Today, the work of cinematic auteurs associated with the first and second waves of TNC continues to attract accolades at prestigious film festivals.

On the other hand, Taiwan’s film industry experienced serious setback when the domestic commercial film market became completely dominated by Hollywood in the 1990s. The long-term decline continued into the 21st century until the appearance of Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖)’s debut feature film, Cape No.7 (2008), which became the most profitable locally made movie in Taiwan’s history.

Prior to Cape No.7, there were several local productions which caught the popular imagination. Yet the popularity of these films did not stimulate a revival, and the struggle for screenings in movie theaters continued. In contrast, the box-office performance of Cape No.7 gathered momentum in 2008 and encouraged positive signs of improvement.

For researchers of Taiwan cinema and cinephilia, this new period of movie-making and consumption raises several questions: Did Cape No.7 usher in a new dawn of filmmaking on the island? What are the characteristics of the so-called ‘post-New Cinema’, and who are its representatives? What is the relationship between the younger generations of Taiwanese filmmakers and the renowned TNC masters? Can we claim that post-New Cinema embodies the legacies of TNC, or does it demonstrate their complete rupture? Moreover, how do these new Taiwan-based filmmakers maintain their presence on the international film festival circuit, and are their films reaching global audiences?
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