The 23rd Taipei Film Festival is in full swing with over 300 films from around the world. Here are 15 of our favorite selections for you to watch at home or in the theater.
The taipei film festival submission is a list of films that are worth watching at the 23rd Taipei Film Festival.
The 23rd Taipei Film Festival will take place from September 23rd to October 9th, 2024, and here are the fifteen films you should not miss.
– Films to Watch –
Harumoto Yujiro’s A Balance – Japan | 2024 – 153 minutes International New Talent Competition is a section of the competition.
Yuko, a documentary filmmaker, is working on a film about the grieving family of a bullied teenager who committed suicide three years ago. Yuko’s outspoken attitude causes her to clash with conservative-minded management at her documentary’s television network, but she succeeds in convincing her interview subjects to come out of their shells and put their confidence in her.
Monday, September 27th, 2024 | 18:20 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 Friday, October 1, 2024 | 20:00 pm | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One
Trailer:
Chu Hsien-A che’s Lean Soul – Taiwan | 2024 – 104 minutes Documentary section of the Taipei Film Awards
A Lean Soul is a documentary about Taiwanese writer Qi Dengsheng’s life and career. The filmmakers were able to conduct in-depth interviews with not just Qi’s closest friends and family, but also with Qi himself, who is famously camera-shy. Many sections from Qi’s highly personal works of fiction are also vividly dramatized in the film. The result is a personal and honest picture of one of Taiwan’s most significant and divisive authors of the past half-century.
Dates: Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | 21:30 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11
Trailer:
Chang Yao-A sheng’s Leg – Taiwan | 2024 – 115 minutes Section: Narrative Features of the Taipei Awards
A limb is going to be amputated at the start of this tale. Zi-han, the leg’s owner, anticipated to be released from the hospital shortly after the surgery, but he develops problems and dies suddenly unexpectedly. Yu-ying, his wife, is motivated to find his missing limb. She begins to remember how he led her in a dance when they first met, how they fell in love, and how their relationship progressively disintegrated over the course. She attempts to properly say goodbye to the guy she once loved by retrieving the leg. Only then would she be able to go on her own path.
Dates: Monday, October 4th, 2024 | 14:50 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11
Trailer:
Zhu Shengze’s A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces – USA | 2024 – 87 minutes Section: Bite of Reality
In the city of Wuhan, a picture of urban areas along the Yangtze River. A fun community stage where individuals perform in a variety of ways, including dancing, singing, and swimming, as well as shoveling, welding, and hammering. Nature is constantly sculpting the environment, which is drastically changed by roaring machinery and towering structures. Desires are sown here. Where the memories of the past are buried. The misplaced location.
Dates of screening: Saturday, September 25th, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A Two | 18:10 pm Wednesday, September 29th, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A Two | 20:40 pm Monday, October 4th, 2024 | 15:50 pm | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A Two
Trailer:
Along The Sea by Fujimoto Akio – Japan, Vietnam | 2024 – 89 minutes
Three young Vietnamese women in their early twenties, An, Nhu, and Phuong, work as technical trainees in Japan. They decide to flee, becoming illegal residents in Japan, since they are dissatisfied with their circumstances.
Dan, a middle-aged Vietnamese guy, connects them with a fisherman looking for employment and a shed where they may stay for free. They arrive in Northern Japan after traveling by rail and boat. Despite the unlawful working circumstances, the trio is delighted to have found employment and have quadrupled their earnings. Phuong collapses on the ground, in excruciating pain, as they begin their job. An and Nhu are worried and take Phuong to the hospital, but they are denied admittance since they do not have an ID card. Phuong then starts researching how to get forged identification papers.
Dates: Tuesday, September 28th, 2024 | 14:00 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 Saturday, October 2nd, 2024 | 19:10 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 6 | 22:00 pm
Trailer:
Any Crybabies in the House? by Sato Takuma – Japan | 2024 – 108 minutes
In the midst of the holy Namahage Festival, when men dress up as ogres and visit houses to frighten children into behaving well the next year, a guy is caught on live national television nude and intoxicated. Tasuku, a young father, is shunned for putting the town and its traditions in disrepute, and he leaves to Tokyo alone.
He returns to his hometown two years later to make up with his ex-wife and their little daughter, only to find himself in a terrible position.
Dates of screening: Saturday, September 25th, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A Two | 20:40 pm Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | 18:50 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11
David Verbeek’s Dead & Beautiful – Taiwan, Netherlands | 2024 – 99 minutes Narrative Features Section at the Taipei Film Awards
Five bored, super-rich pals discover they are vampires after a strange night. Panic! Is this what they’ve evolved into? Is it still possible for them to trust one another? Every single one of them goes to great lengths to find out.
On a meta level, this take on the vampire genre freely plays with social tension and expectations. The captivating luxurious yet frightening settings and magnificent cityscapes serve as a background for themes like murder, solitude, and innocence.
October 3rd, 2024 | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 | 20:20 pm September 30th, 2024 | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Qsquare 6 | 19:00 pm
Trailer:
Jun Li’s Drifting – Hong Kong | 2024 – 113 minutes Section: Prism in Asia
Fai, fresh out of prison, finds a place on a street corner where he is welcomed by other homeless individuals. He doesn’t have much time to settle in, however. They are quickly apprehended by the police, and their belongings are taken away in a trash truck. Ms. Ho, a young social worker, believes it is time to take the case to court. Meanwhile, Fai and his companions are preoccupied with other matters.
Jun Li paints a committed, human picture of a marginalized group, showing friendship and solidarity, conflict and tragedy, against a backdrop of the contrast between luxury high-rise buildings and makeshift huts under viaducts, shot during a period of intense protests on the streets of Hong Kong (which are not shown, though they were an influence on the film).
Dates of screening: Sunday, September 26th, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A Two | 11:20 a.m. Friday, October 1, 2024 | 21:40 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 10 Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | 15:00 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 10
Trailer:
Section: Taipei Film Awards-Narrative Features I Weirdo by Liao Ming-yi – Taiwan | 2024 – 104 minutes
Po-ching is an OCD sufferer who suffers from severe mysophobia symptoms. In his everyday existence, he has been conditioned to clean incessantly. His “”quirkiness”” has also separated him from the broader population, and he is seen as an outcast. On the 15th of every month, Po-ching goes grocery shopping. He eventually meets Chen Ching, another oddo.
It is destiny that brings Po-ching and Chen Ching together. They eventually come across another person who is in the same boat as them. Their connection is clean and flawless. When Po-OCD ching’s suddenly vanishes, though, everything changes.
We are each other’s weirdos in the realm of love. When the affection is gone, I’m no longer drawn to your oddities.
Dates: Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | 18:00 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 10
Trailer:
Chen Yu-My hsun’s Missing Valentine (Taiwan, 2024, 119 minutes) is part of the Taipei Film Awards’ Narrative Features section.
Xiao-chi is constantly one step ahead of the competition since she accomplishes everything so fast. Her mundane work at the post office, where she had to wait for a sluggish bus driver to deliver a letter every day. Xiao-chi is nearing her 30th birthday and has been anticipating the arrival of her first love. Finally, on the eve of Valentine’s Day, she is asked out by a gorgeous man. She wakes up the following morning, anticipating her first date, to discover that Valentine’s Day has suddenly gone…
Dates: Wednesday, October 6th, 2024 | 15:20 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11
Trailer:
South Korea | 2024 – 79 minutes | Short Vacation by Kwon Min-pyo, Seo Hansol International New Talent Competition is a section of the competition.
A teacher gives an old-fashioned analog camera to four middle school pupils who are members of a photography club. During summer break, the instructor instructs students to photograph “the end of the world.” They board the subway to travel to the very last stop, as one of the girls proposes, while they debate where “the end of the world” might be.
Dates: Friday, September 24, 2024 | 19:10 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 Saturday, October 2nd, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One | 20:50 pm Tuesday, October 5th, 2024 | 17:30 pm | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One
Trailer:
Section: Future Lights Taiki Sakpisit’s The Edge of Daybreak – Thailand, Switzerland | 2024 – 116 minutes
The psychological environment of a dysfunctional family as it falls from grace under the shadow of conflicts is explored in The Edge of Daybreak. A lady is brought to a safe house on the eve of a political power change, where she has one last dinner with her husband before he is smuggled away.
Ploy was a little girl in a coma 30 years ago after almost drowning. Her mother is suffering from a mental breakdown, and her father, a soldier, has been gone for three years. She relives the horrors of their childhood with her lover and her husband’s younger brother.
Dates of screenings: Monday, September 27th, 2024 | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One | 20:40 pm Thursday, September 30th, 2024 | 14:40 pm | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One Thursday, October 7th, 2024 | 12:10 pm | SPOT HUASHAN Cinema A One
Trailer:
Ko Chen-The nien’s Silent Forest – Taiwan | 2024 – 104 minutes Narrative Features Section at the Taipei Film Awards
Chang Cheng, a deaf adolescent, is transferred to a special needs school. The realm of the deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deafeningly deaf Chang’s enthusiasm about integrating into a new environment quickly turns to dread when he sees the “game” going place in the final row of the school bus. Chang argues with himself whether he should disclose the terrible reality about the game or if he should participate in after seeing Bei Bei, the girl he has a crush on, being severely wounded, Xiao Guang, the ringleader, behaving like a king, and other schoolmates playing innocent. As the line between offenders and victims blurs, everyone at school becomes more confused and anxious.
Dates: Tuesday, October 5th, 2024 | 18:50 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 10
Trailer:
Taiwan | 2024 – 106 minutes Section: Taipei Film Awards-Narrative Features Treat or Trick by Hsu Fu-hsiang – Taiwan | 2024 – 106 minutes
After viewing the criminals’ treasured item during a police raid conducted by the bent policeman Feng and his colleagues, Feng’s friend Chiang has another idea. He steals the gems and flees to a nearby hamlet to hide. Feng has no option but to dispatch Monk and Yang to recover the jewels within 48 hours. Chiang’s mobile phone signal indicates that he is in the hamlet, but Feng is unable to locate him. Feng can only start interacting with the apparently innocent yet strange villagers, which involves everyone playing mind tricks on one other. A female ghost appears in the middle of this tumultuous scenario, exacerbating the situation…
Will Feng be able to uncover the truth and reclaim his friend? Whether good or bad, the unpredictability makes everyone uneasy and suspicious.
Dates: Thursday, October 7th, 2024 | 19:30 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Hsin Yi 11 Thursday, October 7th, 2024 | MUVIE CINEMAS TITAN | 20:00 pm
Trailer:
Section: Visions by Hamaguchi Ryusuke – Japan | 2024 – 121 minutes Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy by Hamaguchi Ryusuke – Japan | 2024 – 121 minutes
An unexpected love triangle, a botched seduction trap, and a misunderstanding lead to an encounter.
Meiko is taken aback when she discovers that the guy her best friend is having emotions for is her ex; Sasaki plans to deceive his college professor in order to get vengeance; and Natsuko meets a lady who seems to be someone from her past, prompting the two to declare their affections.
The tales about the complexity of relationships are presented via coincidences that occur in the lives of women in love in Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy.
Dates: October 4th, 2024 | 19:00 pm | Vie Show Cinemas Taipei Qsquare 6
The taiwan film festival is an annual event in Taipei, Taiwan. This year’s 23rd edition of the festival will be held from October 25th to November 4th.
