2020 CTS Film Week: "Encounter at the Station" (難忘的車站) Film Screening, Introduced by Professor Chris Berry (KCL)

Professor Chris Berry (KCL)

Date: 10 February 2020Time: 7:00 PM

Finishes: 10 February 2020Time: 9:00 PM

Venue: Senate House Room: SWLT

Type of Event: Film Screening

2K Restoration

1965｜112 min｜B&W｜Narrative Feature｜Taiwanese∣

Synopsis

Tshui-Giok’s step-father sells her to a club to pay off his debt. But when her boyfriend, Kok-Liong, learns about it he helps get her out and plans to marry her. However, Kok-Liong’s mother disapproves of the marriage and arranges for him to marry a wealthy girl, Hun-Kiau. Years later, when Kok-Liong and Tshui-Giok meet again, all their feelings return. Though Tshui-Giok ultimately decides to break up with Kok-Liong for the sake of Hun-Kiau, her leaving drives Kok-Liong mad and Hun-Kiau has no choice but to set Kok-Liong free, so he and Tshui-Giok can be together.

The film is adapted from CHIN Hsing-Chi’s popular novel Leng Nuan Jen Chien, though its wartime atmosphere and female protagonist’s personal struggles are removed to focus on the love triangle in order to make it a family melodrama. Told from an omniscient point of view, the film not only carries a well-executed narrative, a gripping storyline and strong emotions, it also reshapes characters to adapt to its form of visual storytelling, placing it at the pinnacle of the Taiwanese-language family melodrama genre.

Director Biography: HSIN Chi

Born in 1924, HSIN found his love for movies, literature and plays at a young age. After studying theater at Nihon University in Japan, he returned to Taiwan and became active in the theater movement. Though he temporarily left Taiwan following the February 28 Incident, he again returned as Taiwanese-language films were on the rise, during which he began to explore filmmaking. He organized actors’ workshops and became a screenwriter and director interested in experimenting with different subjects, styles and techniques. His most notable Taiwanese-language films include the baseball film Kiss Me (1963), Alias Lover (1965) based on The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, a disaster film, The Night of Jiayi Earthquake (1964), and Back Street Life (1965), a satirical comedy about low lifes. Eight of HSIN’s Taiwanese-language films exist today and are currently preserved in Taiwan Film Institute.

This screening is part of 'Taiyupian: Taiwan's Lost Commercial Cinema'

Did you know regular filmmaking on Taiwan only started in the 1950s? With a Taiwanese-language film industry? 1,000-plus Taiwanese-language features were made up to the 1970s. But the budgets were miniscule, the companies short-lived, and there was no archive. They were quickly forgotten, and only 200-plus survive. Now, Taiwan’s lost commercial cinema is being recovered and restored by the Taiwan Film Institute. Our 2020 edition follows the successful 2017 edition to bring 7 scholars together for a symposium at King’s College London on 8 February 2020, launching a screening tour of 7 newly restored and subtitled dramatic films and 4 contemporary short films.

This event and tour are a collaboration between the Cultural Divsision of the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, Taiwan Film Institute, and Kings College London. For more information, visit Taiyupian.uk