Taiwan on the Cutting Edge of Virtual Reality

How VR films are putting Taiwan on the map

Variety
Date: August 31, 2019
By: Kevin Ma

Taiwan has emerged as a creative hub for Mandarin-language content, with such heavyweights as HBO Asia and Netflix collaborating with local TV networks and production companies. In January, the Taiwan government took the next step to bring its content to a bigger international audience when President Tsai Ing-wen signed the Organizational Act of the Taiwan Creative Content Agency, paving the way for the Ministry of Culture to establish the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (TAICCA).

Modeled after Korea’s Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) and similar institutions in Europe, TAICCA aims to aid the development of the island’s cultural content industry and bring more Taiwanese content to global audiences, elevating its cultural soft power in Asia and beyond.

Part of the agency’s first five-year plan is to drive innovation in the creation of cultural content. In recent years, Taiwan has quickly risen as a leading creator of VR content. In 2017, “La Camera Insabbiata,” a Taiwan-U.S. co-production, won the Best VR Experience award at the Venice Film Festival’s first Virtual Reality competition, while arthouse auteur Tsai Ming-liang screened his 55-minute VR film, “The Deserted,” in the main competition.

Since then, more Taiwanese VR films have screened in major film festivals: John Hsu’s “Your Spiritual Temple Sucks” and Tsai Tsung-Han’s “Live Stream From Yuki <3” both unspooled at the Sundance Film Festival, while Lee Chung’s “Mr. Buddha” was screened at Tribeca this year. The Virtual Reality section of this year’s Venice Film Festival features seven VR projects from Taiwanese productions, including five in the competition section. (An eighth project — John Hsu and Marco Lococo’s “Great Hoax” — is in the Venice Gap-Financing Market).    [FULL  STORY]