Apolitical Romance (2013)
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A Taiwanese-American man is happily settled in New York with his American boyfriend. He plans a marriage of convenience to a Chinese woman in order to keep his parents off his back and to get the woman a green card. Chaos follows when his parents arrive in New York for the wedding.
The film tells the story of a retired and widowed Chinese master chef Chu (Si Hung Lung) and his family living in modern day Taipei, Taiwan. At the start of the film, he lives with his three attractive daughters, all of whom are unattached. As the film progresses, each of the daughters encounters new men in their lives. When these new relationships blossom, the stereotypes are broken and the living situation within the family changes.. The film features several scenes displaying the techniques and artistry of gourmet Chinese cooking. Since the family members have difficulty expressing their love for each other, the intricate preparation of banquet quality dishes for their Sunday dinners is the surrogate for their familial feelings.
Through a famous painting "South Street Festival", a Taiwanese college boy unexpectedly travels 100 years back in time, back to the 1920's, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. He is stuck, he panics, he wants to return to 2014 but soon changes his mind, not just because of the prettiest geisha girl in town...
Aga, a band singer, returns to Hengchun with frustration. Tomoko is a Japanese model assigned to organize a local warm-up band for the Japanese super star beach concert. Together with other five ordinary Hengchun residents who were not expected to be great or anything, they formed an impossible band.
Hsiao-Kang, now working as an adult movie actor, meets Shiang-chyi once again. Meanwhile, the city of Taipei faces a water shortage that makes the sales of watermelons skyrocket.
Maiku Hama is a private detective working in Yokohama. Hama comes to the aid of a Taiwanese waiter named Yang and agrees to track down his missing brother. Through a series of double-crosses Hama gets embroiled in a gang war and a revenge plot between the two brothers
In the 1980s, Taiwan is still under Martial Law, and people are locked in the battle to have it lifted; a social revolution is set to take off. Mabel, Liam, and Aaron throw themselves into the fight for freedom: they paint graffiti slogans on the walls of their school, and plan a protest during the morning assembly...
Chun, 28, Taiwanese, goes on a conflict-packed search journey with her Chinese guide, Ming, to find her father's long-lost first love, XiuQian, in China. Chun's father had promised XiuQian 60 years ago that he'd definitely come back to marry her. But not until recently, Taiwan and China were hostile to each other, he was never able to fulfill his promise. Chun and Ming grew up on two sides of the Taiwan Strait and were brought up with different values. They don't hesitate to cut each other down to size. Their turbulent romance unfolds in tears, laughter and a clash of values. The love story of two generations, across the Taiwan Strait, told with touching drama and biting comedy, is a poignant and entertaining road movie.
Tang (Muo) goes on a trip to Taitung to record the sounds of nature, hoping the tape may save his relationship with his girlfriend who is leaving him. What he does not know, is that she has already moved away and another girl, Yun (Kwai), has moved into that apartment. Yun is trapped in a hopeless love triangle, and troubled by all the issues she faces in life. After listening to the tape that Tang sent, she feels as if the kindness of nature is calling her, and travels to Taitung to find the mysterious man who sends her the tape. On the other hand, Tsai (Chia), a psychiatrist struggling in a failed marriage, suddenly realizes that he needs to let things go after helping a patient with extramarital affairs. He leaves everything behind and goes to Taitung to search for his ex-lover. The three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before.
In Taiwan a young man with a mysterious paralysis massages his neck with his mother's dildo, meanwhile the rain is flooding the island.
There are three stories of women and men: in "A Time for Love" set in 1966, a soldier searches for a young woman he met one afternoon playing pool; "A Time for Freedom," set in a bordello in 1911, revolves around a singer's longing to escape her surroundings; in "A Time for Youth" set in 2005 Taipei, a triangle in which a singer has an affair with a photographer while her partner suffers is dramatized. In the first two stories, letters are crucial to the outcome; in the third, it's cell-phone calls, text messages, and a computer file. Over the years between the tales, as sexual intimacy becomes more likely and words more free, communication recedes.
Adolescence is like a heavy rain. Even though you catch a cold from it, you still look forward to experiencing it once again. Ko-Teng has several close friends who had a crush on Shen Chia-Yi. Those friends of Ko's thus moved in unison from Ching Chengs junior high school straight into the senior high school division in pursuit of her. Naughty in nature, Ko was ordered by their homeroom teacher to sit in front of honor student Shen for her to keep close tabs on him. The two hadn't hit it off at first but Ko gradually fell for Shen, who was always pressuring him to study hard. On the other hand, Shen became impressed by the contrasting values Ko represented. Ko started pursuing Shen but Shen remained hesitant.
Dragon Eye Congee tells the story of a second-generation Taiwanese American, Shaun Tam, who, since childhood, has repeatedly dreamt about the same woman in the same scenes, complete with a haunting melody and the fragrant smell of rice congee with dried longan.
In the picturesque island of Cuyo, Palawan, an illegal Taiwanese fishing vessel docks carrying the fisherman named Muo Sei, a man looking for something or someone with the name Ploning. He has from sunrise to sundown to look for this "Ploning".
Intended as the concluding film in the trilogy on the modern history of Taiwan began with Beiqing Chengshi (1989), this film reveals the story through three levels: a film within a film as well as the past and present as linked by a young woman, Liang Ching. She is being persecuted by an anonymous man who calls her repeatedly but does not speak. He has stolen her diary and faxes her pages daily. Liang is also rehearsing for a new film that is due to go into production soon. The film, entitled Haonan Haonu, is about a couple Chiang Bi-yu and Chung Hao-tung who returns to China to participate in the anti-Japanese movement in China in the 1940s and are arrested as communists when they go back to Taiwan.
Pam meets Rico an Ivatan, and decides to leave her stressful life in the city to follow him to Batanes to meet his parents Boy and Lydia and marry him. Pam tries to adapt to the Ivatan way of life but hates the sea that Rico loves so much. Her hatred for the sea intensifies when her husband Rico dies in a fishing accident. Pam is devastated and decides to go back to Manila. But when she sensed that the sea was laughing at her failure, she chose to stay in Batanes to be with Rico's family. In one of her trips to the sea, she accidentally meets Kao Ken Chu, a Taiwanese, whom she rescues during a storm. As they spend time together, the two eventually fall for each other despite language barriers and cultural differences.
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The discovery of a discarded sofa, in Taipei city, transforms a routine Sunday into a capricious adventure of perseverance and self-discovery for - Filipino guest workers - Manuel and Dado.
The story is about an elderly Chinese tai chi chuan teacher and grandfather who emigrates from Beijing to live with his son, American daughter-in-law, and grandson in a New York City suburb. The grandfather is increasingly distanced from the family as a "fish out of water" in Western culture.
Taiwanese pop sensation Jay Chou, drawing on his years as an actor, director, and recording star, creates a fantasy playground of music, moves, and magic as a backdrop to an action comedy which pays homage to the wondrous musicals of the past, while exploding to life with todayâs sound and spirit.
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A meek, middle-aged schoolteacher is put in charge of a class of trouble makers. Unable to withstand the torments they put him through, he runs away to a Shaolin temple. At the temple, he studies martial arts under the guidance of an old master. With his new skills, he returns to school and whips his misbehaving students into shape.
When Ah Bu, a girl from a small fishing town in Taiwan, finds a glass bottle with a romantic message, she travels to Hong Kong to find her prince charming. As it turns out, her prince charming, Albert, happens to be gay. But all is not lost when Ah Bu meets the dashing Chi Wu. Meanwhile, Ah Bu's boyfriend from Taiwan comes looking for her, as the action and romance follow Ah Bu back to Taiwan.
College freshman Si-ying gets a part-time job at âCafe. Waiting. Loveâ coffee shop, where she befriends Abusi, a tomboyish barista who can make any coffee the customers request, the beautiful and mysterious cafe owner, and Zeyu, the boy who always sits in the same spot in the cafe who seems to be very popular with girls and on whom Si-ying develops an instant crush.
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Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries.
Eight people try to end their loneliness by searching for that one person to love, who can make their life complete.
A Taiwanese comedy set in Lower Manhattan which chronicles the travails of two Taiwanese illegal aliens as they try to get a green card. The woman, Siao-yu, works as a sweatshop seamstress while her lover, Jiang Wei, is a student who works in a fish market. They meet an Italian-American, Mario, who has racked up a large gambling debt. They agree to give him the $10,000 he needs if he will only marry Siao-yu and get her a green card.
An is-she-or-isn't-she gay comedy focused on a Taiwanese teen, the boy she might like, and the girl she may love.
A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
In the final days of the year 1999, most everyone in Taiwan has died. A strange plague has ravished the island. Supposedly spread by cockroaches, the disease sends its victims into a psychosis where they act like the insects. Eventually, they die. The Hole takes place in a crumbling apartment building. Its two protagonists live right above and below each other. The woman is on the lower floor, and the pipes above her apartment are leaking fiercely, threatening to destroy her food supply, not to mention her sanity. She calls a plumber to go check it out, and he accidentally pokes a hole through the floor of the man's apartment. The two have never met before, and they come into contact through the hole.
Two warriors in pursuit of a stolen sword and a notorious fugitive are led to an impetuous, physically-skilled, teenage nobleman's daughter, who is at a crossroads in her life.
A story of three couples and their intertwining love stories set in 1940s Taiwan and Shanghai, centered around the 1949 sinking of Taiping.
A-yuan and A-yun are both from the small mining town of Jio-fen. In the city, A-yuan is an apprentice by day and goes to night school, and A-yun works as a helper at a tailors. Everyone thinks they are meant for each other, so do they. They fail to see time and fate are beyond their control.
"Eternal Summer" tells the story of Jonathan (Bryant Chang), a young man who finds himself in an enviable romantic predicament.
Hsiao-Kang, a Taiwanese film director, travels to the Louvre in Paris, France, to shoot a film that explores the Salomé myth.
When Sid insults a powerful triad boss, his father sends him to Taiwan for safety. Bored and restless, he discovers a community of Zen drummers high in the hills, and joins up - a decision inspired by a pretty face that soon becomes a challenge.
Taipei. A voice off-camera looks back ten years to 2000, when Vicky was in an on-again off-again relationship with Hao-Hao...
A gutsy police detecive and his team of cops probe into the widespread illegal dealings of a criminal mastermind who schemes to redeem himself by running for government office in taiwan.
A brother and sister escape from Japanese-occupied Shanghai to Japanese-occupied Taiwan, to stay with their grandfather who runs a Kung-Fu school there. However, the master of a Japanese Kung-Fu school in Taiwan has designs on bringing all other schools on the island under his domination, and part of his plan involves the murder of the siblings' grandfather.
Police Inspector Pao is trying to catch Mak Kwan, a gang member who is first arrested, but then escapes from the prison. By chance, Pao realizes that the target of Kwan's gang is the H.K. Jockey Club
A dark and handsome true-crime thriller about kidnapping and police corruption in Hong Kong. One of Jackie Chan's most serious roles, but still overflowing with spectacular acrobatic sequences.
Gangsters abound in this lively, romantic crime drama that is set in Shanghai during WW II. The tale of Taiwanese patriot Hsu Wen-Chiang begins as he is washed up on a beach near Shanghai. He is taken in by Ting Lik, a kindly beggar who is desperately in love with Feng Ching-Ching, the daughter of a prominent gangster. It isn't long before Ting Lik successfully rises through the underworld ranks to become one of the city's most powerful gangsters. Hsu is beside him all the way and uses his own power to get revenge against those who tried to have him killed much earlier. The film's later focus is on the exploits of Feng who long ago had a relationship with Hsu when he was on the lam in northern China. Back in the present, Hsu and Feng meet again by chance and they resume their affair until Hsu learns that Feng's father is one of his enemies and kills him. Poor Feng goes mad with grief. Ting finds out and swears revenge upon Hsu.
Two security guards â one from Beijing, one from Taipei â are forced to work together to track down a legendary Chinese painting that has been stolen by international art thieves
A Taiwanese drug mule hires an eccentric cab driver to take him down South so that he can deliver bags of heroin. Things don't go quite to plan as the worst impulses of man plague everyone and everything, and the moments of brevity are so important among the torture and sadism.
Kicki has after several years abroad returned to Sweden. Her 17-year old son has been brought up by his grandmother and has a very distant relationship to his mother. In an effort to get reacquainted Kicki invites her son to join her on vacation in Taiwan. But her hidden agenda is that Taipei is also the home of the Taiwanese businessman with whom she has been conducting an Internet romance.
In the early 1980s, an FBI Agent is assigned to investigate the murder of a respected professor. Through his investigation, he unearths a spider web of international secrets that has been thriving within college campuses across America for decades. His investigation takes him across the Pacific to the island nation of Taiwan, where with the help of the outspoken widow and an unlikely spy, he learns that the Professor's killing was not a random act, but a desperate move by a scandalous government intent on keeping its nefarious activities under wraps. Our detective soon finds himself on a collision course against the U.S. State Department, the Chinese Mafia, and the Nationalist Chinese Government - in a land where the truth is not what it seems and the only people he can trust, cannot be trusted at all. Inspired by actual events.
A Taiwanese high school baseball team travels to Japan in 1931 to compete in a national tournament.
The film follows a commercial airliner on a routine flight between Taipei and Seoul that is hijacked and taken to mainland China by the fictional Taiwan Revolutionary Army Front. Communist authorities cannot seize the plane because of the presence of an important business figure on the flight, and agree to cooperate discreetly with Taiwanese authorities to defuse an already tense situation.
Composed of three separate stories, the film vividly portrays Taiwan during the cold war period when the country developed its economy with help from the United States. It is regarded as a hallmark of Taiwanese New Cinema.
A shameful period in Taiwanese history provides the backdrop for this emotional drama from writer and director Yonfan (aka Yang Fan). In 1949, in the wake of the 228 Incident (in which anti-government protesters launched a rebellion that was violently put down by authorities), Taiwan came under martial law, and through much of the 1950s brutal reprisals against suspected communists were commonplace. During the years of the "White Terror," thousand of supposed dissidents were killed, imprisoned or simply disappeared at the hands of the military police.
A-kuo and A-tou are teen-aged boys living in an industrial town in Taiwan. When they are not in school, they generally hang out with their buddy Hsiao Kao, a very stylish and charismatic younger gangster who enjoys their company and support. When one of Hsia Kao's gangland patrons is gunned down, the trio set out to revenge the killing. As a result, the two teens are forced into hiding. One boy tells his dad he wants to go to America, which nearly kills the old man. The other just lays low. When things cool down a bit, they head on up to Taipei, looking for their gangster friend and sampling the gritty pleasures of the capital city's underworld and nightlife. - Clarke Fountain, Rovi
In the first half of this century, young Li Tienlu joins a travelling puppet theatre and subsequently makes a career as one of Taiwan's leading puppeteers.
A scientist uses his invention - the "Menger Sponge" - to capture the energy of a dead child's spirit in an old building. In trying to determine why the energy of the ghost does not dissipate, the team discovers the identity and the dramatic story of the boy.
Soon after Japan relinquishes control of Taiwan in 1945, the Lin brothers face hardships from the changing culture. Bar owner Wen-heung (Chen Sown-yung), the eldest brother, falls foul of local gangsters, Wen-sun disappears, and Wen-leung, scarred by his experiences in the war, ends up in an insane asylum. Deaf-mute photographer Wen-ching (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), the youngest brother, decides to make a stand and fight the Kuomintang government from China that is assuming power.
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