Film For Brains

Asian Visions Film Festival :

TSAI MING-LIANG
June 29 – July 2, 2010
UPFI Videotheque

Rebels of the Neon God
June 29 / Tue / 5pm
UPFI Videotheque

Golden Horse Film Festival 1992, Golden Horse Award Best Original Score
Tokyo International Film Festival 1993, Bronze Award
Torino International Festival of Young Cinema 1993, Prize of the City of Torino Best Film – International Feature Film Competition

Synopsis:
Rebels of the Neon God (Taiwanese: Ch’ing shaonien ne cha, literally Teenaged Nezha) is a 1992 Taiwanese film by Tsai Ming-liang. It is his first full-length film. It tells two stories of Taipei youth. One details alienated buxiban student Hsiao Kang (Lee Kang-sheng) and his troubled interactions with his family. The other shows two petty hoods, Ah Tze and Ah Bing, along with Ah Kuei, Tze’s erstwhile girlfriend. An idle act of violence brings the two groups into collision, and an act of revenge at the end completes the circle. It is a story of troubled youth, dissatisfaction, and the alienating effect of urban life.

Much of Rebels of the Neon God is filmed in various arcades and malls in Taipei and on the streets of the city with hand-held cameras. It is filmed in a much more naturalistic manner than some of Tsai’s later work.

Vive L’Amour
June 30 / Wed / 5pm
UPFI Videotheque

Golden Horse Film Festival 1994, Golden Horse Award Best Director, Best Film and Best Sound Effects
Singapore International Film Festival 1995, Best Asian Feature Film, Silver Screen Award Best Actress
Venice Film Festival 1994, FIPRESCI Prize and Golden Lion

Synopsis:
Vive L’Amour (Chinese: 愛情萬歲 Aiqing wansui) is a 1994 Taiwanese New Wave film by Tsai Ming-liang. It is a slow paced film with sparse dialogue about urban alienation, centering on three people who unknowingly share an apartment in Taipei.

The film won three Golden Horse Awards for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Sound Effects. It also won the prestigious Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival.

The film focuses on three city folks who unknowingly share the same apartment: Mei, a real estate agent who uses it for her sexual affairs; Ah-jung, her current lover; and Hsiao-ang, who’s stolen the key and uses the apartment as a retreat. Written by L.H. Wong

The River
July 1 / Thu / 5pm
UPFI Videotheque

Berlin International Film Festival 1997, Silver Berlin Bear Special Jury Prize
Chicago International Film Festival 1997, Silver Hugo Jury Special Prize
Edinburgh International Film Festival 1997, Channel 4 Director’s Award – Special Mention
Singapore International Film Festival 1997, Silver Screen Award Special Jury Prize
Sao Paulo International Film Festival 1997, Critics Award-Honorable Mention

Synopsis:
The River (Chinese name He liu) is a 1997 Taiwanese film by Tsai Ming-liang.

The plot focuses around the character Xiao-kang, a young man in his early 20s, who begins to suffer inexplicably from severe neck pain. His father has a sexual relationship with another man of similar age.
Taiwan, Xiao-kang, a young man in his early 20s, lives with his parents in near silence. He is plagued by severe neck pain. His father is bedeviled by water first leaking into his bedroom and then flooding the apartment; rain is incessant. Xiao-kang’s mother is overcome by sexual longing for her son, sometimes making seemingly incestuous overtures. They try virtually every intervention for Xiao-kang’s neck: Western medicine, a chiropractor, acupuncture, an herbal doctor, and a faith healer, Master Liu. Are the family’s silent dynamics and Xiao-kang’s neck pain connected? And what about the body floating in the Tamsui River: is everything dead?

The Hole
July 2 / Fri / 5pm
UPFI Videotheque

Cannes Film Festival 1998, FIPRESCI Prize
Chicago International Film Festival 1998, Gold Hugo Best Film
Singapore International Film Festival 1999, Silver Screen Award Best Asian Actress, Best Asian Director and Best Asian Feature Film
Sitges-Catalonian International Film Festival 1998, Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver

Synopsis:
The Hole is a 1998 musical directed by Tsai Ming-liang. In the film, a strange disease hits Taiwan a week before the turn of the millennium. Despite evacuation orders, tenants of a rundown apartment building stay put, and the disease causes the tenants to act strangely.