Taipei Film Festival announces its opening and
closing films today (May 28). The festival will open with Nina Wu (premiered at Cannes
Film Festival’s “Un Certain Regard” and becoming a subject of discussion) and
closes with So Long, My Son (directed by Wang Xiaoshuai and winning the two
main acting awards at Berlinale). Midi Z, director of Nina Wu, along with main
actresses Wu Ke-xi , Sung Yu-hua and Hsia Yu-chiao, will attend the Asian
Premiere of the film at Taipei Film Festival. Wang Xiaoshuai, director of So
Long, My Son, will present at the film’s Taiwan premiere.
Since his first feature Return to Burma, director Midi Z has been showing works at Taipei
Film Festival year after year. Differing from his past films focusing on his country
Burma, his latest film Nina Wu was the first time he shot
at locations in Taiwan and ventured on thriller. A long-time collaborator of Midi
Z, actress Wu Ke-xi plays the role of a woman
with actress dream who is gradually pushed to the verge of madness by a series
of experience after she finally got a main role. The strong casting
features Sung Yu-hua (who acted brilliantly in Our Times) and Hsia Yu-chiao (who made a successful debut in Zone Pro Site). Like a phantom duo, they give excellent
performance differing from their previous acting. The film will have its Asian
premiere at Zhongshan Hall in the
evening on June 27.
Midi Z said he had participated in Taipei Film
Festival 8 times since 2012; he was glad that Nina Wu was chosen as the
opening film. “Nina Wu depicts a girl
haunted by nightmare in the process of chasing her dream. The cause of her
nightmare will be revealed at the end of the story. I hope the audience watch
the film with an open mind.” The main actress Wu Ke-xi also took part in Taipei
Film Festival many times. With an excitement beyond restraint, she said how she
took the challenge of scriptwriting for this film; regarding acting, she tried
several approaches she had never adopted before. She also expected the film to
be shown to audience in Taiwan.
The closing film So Long, My Son is the
latest tour-de-force of Wang Xiaoshuai representative of the “Sixth Generation”
filmmakers in China. In line with the director’s persistent pioneering
filmmaking and humanistic concern, this film’s narrative spans three decades
and depicts a series of events gone through by two families since the 1980s to
the present as well as ever-changing friendship, family love and love among
people along with social mutation, economic growth and policy reform. Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei give extremely
touching performance in their interpretation of the couple in this film, for
which they won Silver Bear for best actor and
best actress at Berlinale this year. Director Wang Xiaoshuai will
present at the film’s Taiwan premiere in the evening of July 9 at Zhongshan
Hall and share stories of filmmaking with local audience.
For more details, please check Taipei Film
Festival’s official website (http://www.taipeiff.taipei), Instagram
(https://www.instagram.com/taipeiff) and FACEBOOK fanpage
https://www.facebook.com/TaipeiFilmFestival).