Localization: the key to lead the storm – 2137期

“In the past, the filmmakers didn’t really care about the audiences’ taste , but the audiences never relinquishthe Taiwanese movies,” said Chi-Ku Yeh（葉基固）, the Associate Professor in Department of Radio, Television and Film in Shih Hsin University. Taiwanese movie industry depends on the audiences’ taste. The filmmakers just let their mind rest for twenty years and came back with a new style of the Taiwanese movies. Yeh mentions that Taiwanese movies focus on the plot of the stories. So people would like to watch the movies because the actors speak some slangs, idioms that are very familiar as well as interesting to the audiences. Although the stories behind the Taiwanese moviesare appealing to the wide range of audience, it is difficult for them to have a place in the international movie market. “The Japanese movie ’Departures（送行者：禮儀師的樂章）’ won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2009 because of their narration of emotion across the national frontier and beyond the limit of language.

Hui-lei Jiang（姜惠蕾）, a student of department of Radio, television and film in Shih Hsin University, likes to study Taiwanese films on the techniques, plots and expressions of figures’ emotion. Her favorable Taiwan film is “All the Youthful Days”（風櫃來的人）because of the exquisite shooting skills. Compared to the old movies in Taiwan, the new Taiwan films nowadays usually take the themes from school life and promote the local culture. On the contrary, the themes of the old Taiwan films were always around the politic issues. Jiang thought the reason why the films in Taiwan are more and more popular is because that the filmmakers localize the themes of the movies and show how people really live in this island. 

Certainly, the rise of Taiwan films also boost the local business and tourism, which is very helpful for Taiwan economic growth. Talking about the filming will, Hui-lei Jiang said, “I would not learn from the general trend of Hollywood movies because the themes of the Hollywood movies are almost the same. I still insist on producing a movie with its own characteristics.” Jiang also told that she also wants to make a movie with her hometown’s attractions like the other Taiwan films.