Join us for a showcase of the Taiwan New Wave: the films that defined it, the artists behind them and its enduring legacy today.
From the early 80s into the 90s, Taiwan New Wave cinema found its voice as Taiwanese society was experiencing a newfound freedom after the end of decades-long authoritarian rule.
Emerging out of this period was a group of young, visionary filmmakers who were turning away from mainstream cinema and the popular genre films coming out of Hong Kong. Filmmakers such as Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang turned towards the cinema of Italian neorealism, in their use of non-actors, real settings and an observational gaze.
Their films explored personal stories and complex cultural, political and societal themes that got to the heart of the uneasy tensions between traditional Chinese values, rampant consumerism and encroaching modernity. This focus on the Taiwan New Wave features some of their most celebrated works made within that initial fruitful period and looks beyond to some of their late-career masterpieces which have been canonised as cinema classics. Spiro Economopoulos, ACMI Film & TV Curator
