Dec 15: Taiwan Film Festival 2022 to screen two renowned Taiwanese movies at INOX

NEW DELHI: Taipei Economic and Cultural Centre (TECC), India is organsining Taiwan Film Festival 2022 on December 15 at INOX, Nehru Place, New Delhi to screen two renowned Taiwanese movies – Listen Before You Sing (聽見歌再唱) by Shine Yang (楊智麟), an inspirational movie for the students, and Long Time No Sea (只有大海知道) by HEATHER TSUI (崔永徽), which is based on a acntrue story.

The 113-minute story of ‘Listen Before You Sing’ begins at a tribal primary school for the Bunun tribe in the mountains. The school is risking closure and withdrawal of funding, unless the students distinguish themselves by winning an award, such as the choir competition in 3 months. However, they are dealt with a bad hand, including a group of students with few musical instincts, a physical education teacher that can’t read musical notes and a contract music teacher who doesn’t see herself belong in the group.

In the backstage, hearing how other groups performed, the children recognized their differences and immediately felt defeat and inferiority.  Despite the first performance being a disaster, the students were still encouraged by the applause and the expansive world outside of the village. Learning from their initial loss, the team revised their approach and leveraged their unique Bunun talents to differentiate and regain confidence.

SCHEDULE:

1700- Greet & Meet

1715-Speech

1740-Snacks and Drinks

1800-Frist Screening starts

2000-Second Screening starts

Another movie LONG TIME NO SEA 2018 based on a true story is about  Manawei, a Yami (Tao) boy, who lives on Orchid Island with his grandmother while his father is away from home working. He hopes that his father will bring him a new pair of shoes, but his father’s brief return brings only disappointment. The National Indigenous Dance Competition approaches and a young teacher from Taiwan volunteers to train the school’s dance team with the hope of being transferred back home. While for Manawei, it is a chance to see his father again.

Inspired by a true story, the director reiterates the reclaiming of traditions through the children’s preparation for a dance competition. The grandmother-grandson relationship that is drifting apart is brought close again as Manawei sings and dances in traditional ethnic costume.  Bathed in the spirit of “our culture, our pride”, the film depicts an authentic, rarely seen side of Orchid Island, and engages issues of family relationships, love, abandonment, and grandparenting problems against the backdrop of the Yami(Tao) cultural fault line. All characters except the teacher are portrayed by non-professional actors from the Yami(Tao) ethnic group .