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Four Taiwanese films selected for 2020 Tokyo International Film Festival

  • Date:2020-10-31~2020-11-09
Four Taiwanese films selected for 2020 Tokyo International Film Festival

Four newly-produced Taiwanese films have been selected for the 33rd Tokyo International Film Festival running Oct. 31 to Nov. 9, the annual event's organizers announced on Sept. 29 at a press conference.

Under "Taiwanese Cinema Renaissance 2020" – a sub-category of the festival's "World Focus" section, the four films are "A Leg (腿)," "Little Big Women (孤味)," "Taiwan Equals Love (同愛一家)," and "The Painting of Evil (惡之畫)," tackling topics spanning from human nature to marriage equality.

The World Focus section presents notable works from various international film festivals, films that have yet to be released in Japan and Japanese films that have won much acclaim in international film festivals. In the past years, many of the selected films later secured a theatrical release in Japan, according to the organizers.

"A Leg," the debut feature of Taiwanese director Chang Yao-sheng (張耀升), portrays an unusual but heartwarming love story, according to the Tokyo International Film Festival's (TIFF) introduction. Chang was the co-script writer of the 2019 film "A Sun (陽光普照)," which has been selected as Taiwan's entry in the Best International Feature Film category at the 93rd Academy Award.

Directed by Hsu Chen-chieh (許承傑), "Little Big Women" is a drama that follows a woman who learns her long-lost husband's death on her 70th birthday, the event says. "Taiwan Equals Love," meanwhile, is filmmaker Sophia Yen’s (顏卲璇) documentary that recounts Taiwan's journey to becoming the first nation in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage in May 2019.

"The Painting of Evil," Chen Yung-chi's (陳永錤) first feature work, is a bold and provocative cinematic work that examines moral relationships between artworks, the artist, and the viewers, the TIFF says.

This is the not the first time Taiwanese films are selected to be screened for the decades-old festival. In 2017, six films from the nation, both classic and contemporary, featured at the 30th TIFF.

While most prestigious film festivals worldwide have been postponed or gone virtual amid COVID-19 pandemic, this year's TlFF will proceed in Tokyo-based theaters and venues. A number of symposia featuring Asian filmmakers, however, will be held online due to restrictions brought on by coronavirus, the festival's organizers announced on TIFF’s official website.

Launched in 1985 as Japan's first major film festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival has grown to become one of the largest film festivals in Asia, according to its organizers.

For details, please visit TIFF official website or Facebook page.