News

Paris-based sales company Celluloid Dreams has taken international distribution rights to Taiwanese director Shen Ko-Shang’s drama “Deep Quiet Room,” starring Ariel Lin and Joseph Chang.

“Deep Quiet Room” – which has been a standout at the Asian and European co-production markets including Busan’s Asian Contents and Film Market – marks the feature film debut of Shen, a former artistic director of the Taipei Film Festival who previously made several well-received shorts and docs.

“After his pregnant wife Yi-ting unexpectedly committed suicide, Ming decides to take care of his father-in-law, only to find out the unbearable truth of Yi-ting’s family that leads to her death,” reads the synopsis.

Lin is known across Asia for her roles in hit Taiwan television dramas “It Started With a Kiss,” “In Time With You” and, most recently, “Imperfect Us.” Taiwanese heartthrob Chang recently starred in TV miniseries “Coolie,” in which he played a Chinese...

Three Taiwanese films, Silent Sparks, Eel, and The Trio Hall, along with the Taiwanese international co-production Dreams in Nightmares, have been selected for the Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale). The Berlinale and the European Film Market (EFM) are set to commence on February 13. The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) will host the Taiwan Pavilion at EFM, collaborating with 45 film companies to showcase 99 film titles. Taicca aims to promote Taiwanese films and introduce Taiwan’s production environment and filmmaking resources to international professionals as well as to assist Taiwan’s film industry in expanding its international market. Moreover, on February 15, Taicca will present the Taiwan Spotlight Pitching Session to promote four projects with potential to international professionals, encouraging Taiwanese teams to find opportunities for international collaboration.

Pts Originals’ Silent Sparks is the first feature film by up-and-coming director Ping Chu, starring Shih Ming Shuai (winner of the Golden Horse Award for...

Exclusive: Taiwanese production and sales outfit Flash Forward Entertainment has unveiled new titles for Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM), including fantasy romance Time Loop With the Moon and Moonlight, Ripples!.

Patrick Mao Huang leads Flash Forward, and he has co-produced titles like Karlovy Vary best director prize-winner Pierce, as well as Tiger Stripes, which picked up the Grand Prix at Cannes’ Semaine de la Critique in 2023.

Huang unveiled Time Loop With the Moon as a new title on the company’s slate for EFM. Currently in development, the fantasy-infused coming-of-age romance was adapted from the best-selling novel of the same name by Misa.

The project follows a teenage girl who makes a wish to reunite with her lost friend. She soon wakes up in the past, inhabiting the body of another person on the night of a tragic event. Trapped in an endless time loop, she must unravel the...

Taiwan is making a strong showing at the Berlin Film Festival with four features in official selection, anchored by queer crime thriller “Silent Sparks” and cross-border pic “Dreams in Nightmares” in the Panorama strand. The Taiwan Creative Content Agency (Taicca) is meanwhile mounting an aggressive market push, bringing 99 titles from 45 companies to the European Film Market (EFM).

“Silent Sparks,” marking helmer Ping Chu’s feature debut, packs serious star wattage with Golden Horse winner Shih Ming Shuai and Golden Bell recipient Akira Huang headlining what’s being billed as a distinctly Taiwanese take on LGBTQ+ crime fare. The Pts Originals production, backed by Taicca development coin, will vie for Berlinale’s Teddy Award alongside “Dreams in Nightmares,” a Taiwan-u.S.-U.K. co-production from producer Pin-Chun Liu that unites Each Other Films, Track Eight Pictures Limited and Verdant Peak Films.

The Forum section adds visual artist Su Hui-Yu’s “The Trio Hall,...

The theme of a father and a son, and to a lesser degree a mother and a daughter having romantic and sexual interactions with the same person has been repeatedly explored in cinema throughout the years. In the current era, however, an LGBTQ twist was bound to happen, this time coming from Taiwan, the first Asian country to legalize same-sex marriage.

Blind Love is screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam

As his high school years draw to a close, teenager Han feels the weight of his family’s outwardly perfect image. His father, a respected surgeon, expects him to follow in his footsteps, pressuring him constantly, while his mother, Shu-yi, does not seem to have a say in the matter, and a whole other series of matters actually. At the same time, it is she who is keeping the family, which includes a younger son, together, dealing with every daily...

There’s such an intimate, unflashy style to director Julian Chou’s handling of complex, personal revelations in “Blind Love” (2025) that you’re carried into its folds with little resistance. A subtle, minimalist tone belies the proceedings. There are no overwrought beats nor strains of emotional manipulation in places where those might have been easy, instant reflexes. Barring the occasionally heavy-handed use of blindness as metaphor, Chou maintains a direct simplicity, walking and not rushing with her characters. No arc is belabored as characters navigate a host of dilemmas, and reappraise choices and paths their lives can afford to take.

Circling a family, “Blind Love” is most well-realized when it focuses on Shu-yi (Ariel Lin). She is the prototype of the perfect wife and mother. She has no twinge of a personal life other than being devoted to domestic duties. Her husband, Feng (Frederick Lee), is a successful surgeon. They have two sons,...

Screen can unveil the first trailer for Julian Chou’s Blind Love, which is set to world premiere in the Tiger competition at the upcoming Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR).

A drama about a high-school boy who falls in love with his mother’s ex-girlfriend, it stars Ariel Lin, recently named best actress at Busan’s Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards.Ke-Xi Wu, Jimmy Liu, Frederick Lee co-star

Blind Love recently won the Screenplay Award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) project market.

Director Chou is a talent agent who has produced TV series I Will Never Let You Go...

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has unveiled the Tiger and Big Screen competition line-ups for its 54th edition which takes place from January 30 – February 9.

The Tiger Competition, which showcases emerging voices from across the globe, has 14 world premieres spanning Montenegro to Malaysia and Congo to India. IFFR said one of the Tiger titles will be revealed closer to the festival due to sensitivities surrounding its release. Another 20 titles play in IFFR’s Tiger Short Competition.

The competition includes Julian Chou’s Blind Love, which recently won the Screenplay Award at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) project market.

On The Seesaw, the upcoming feature debut of Taiwan’s Nell Wang, has won the Nt$1m grand prize at the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) project market.

The top award was handed out by a jury comprising Chen Yu-hsun, Yeo Yann Yann and Jacky Pang. The project, which also received the Judicial Creative Film Award, follows two mental health patients who fall in love and get married, only to face challenges testing their bond to the limits. Executive producers are Shen Ko-shang and Anne Wu.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Aoharu Point, the latest project from...

Taiwanese stars Vic Chou and Hsueh Shih-ling and rising talents Liu Tzu-chuan and Ryan Pai, will headline the cast of the second series of hit local series The World Between Us for Taipei-based production and sales company Screenworks Asia, the production subsidiary of Catchplay.

Chou, well known for Meteor Garden, and Shih-ling, who won best supporting actor for Taiwan Crime Stories at last year’s Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott awards (Aca & G.Ott) in Busan, took to the stage on the second day of the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (Tccf) on November 7. Yang Kuei-mei and Hsieh Hsin-ying, who were not present at the event,...

Ariel Lin (Lin Yi Chen) was born 29 October 1982. She is an actress and singer from Asia, who won Best Leading Actress in a Television Series at the 43rd Golden Bell Awards. She majored in Korean and Literature at National Chengchi University, Taiwan.

Lin was first discovered in a Taiwanese variety show “Guess Guess Guess” and was the champion of the pretty subway girl contest in the show. She was paired with Mike He in the television drama series Love Contract. After starring in several television roles in Taiwanese dramas and two films during the early 2000s, she rose to fame in 2005 for her role as Yuan Xiangqin in “It Started With a Kiss”. Lin was also praised for her work in “Tokyo Juliet” (2004) as Lin Laisui with Wu Chun and Simon Yam. Her performances in “The Little Fairy” (2005) as The Seventh Fairy Maiden and “The Legend of the Condor Heroes...

On the occasion of “Imperfect Us” winning two awards (Ariel Lin for Best Lead Actor (Female) and Tanya Chua’s “Learn to Live Again” for Best Original Song) in Busan’s Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards 2024, Pei-hua Yu and Daphne Lee talk about their collaboration and how the series came to be, the difficulties they stumbled upon during the production, and the attention they have to the writing of the series and the people who wrote it.

Imperfect Us is co-produced by Pts and Taiwan Mobile. What is the origin of this collaboration?

Pei-hua Yu: Produced by Public Television Service (Pts) and co-funded by MyVideo Ott, “Imperfect Us” is a romantic drama that was created in 2021. Pts engaged the talents of Mag Hsu, a distinguished screenwriter celebrated for her profound impact on the genre and her widespread popularity in Taiwan’s romantic storytelling landscape.

We believe that a good...

The Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards, co-hosted by the Ministry of Science and Ict and Busan Metropolitan City, and co-organized by the Busan International Film Festival and the National It Industry Promotion Agency, opened grandly with actors Kang Ki-young and Tiffany Young as hosts, and performances by Nerd Connection and Tri.Be added to the festive atmosphere.

Blossoms Shanghai

First, in the Best Creative category, which recognizes works that contribute to the diversification of content through innovative ideas and fresh formats, director Wong Kar-wai’s first feature series Blossoms Shanghai was honored with the award. Hu Ge, the lead actor of Blossoms Shanghai, also won Best Lead Actor (Male), making the series a double winner. Imperfect Us, the most nominated work this year, earned two awards: Ariel Lin for Best Lead Actor (Female) and Tanya Chua’s “Learn to Live Again” for Best Original Song, a newly introduced category. The People’s Choice Award,...

Top prizes at Busan’s Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards today went to Wong Kar-wai’s first feature series Blossoms Shanghai and Coupang Play’s Boyhood.

Blossoms Shanghai won the Best Creative prize and the series’ Hu Ge won Best Lead Actor (Male). Coupang Play’s Boyhood won Best Ott Original.

Best Director went to Indonesian co-directors Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah for Cigarette Girl.

Imperfect Us, the most nominated work at this year’s awards, received two prizes: Best Lead Actor (Female) for Ariel Lin and Best Original Song for Tanya Chua’s “Learn to Live Again.”

The newly-introduced People’s Choice Award went to Byeon Woo-seok and Kim Hyeyoon from Lovely Runner after receiving approximately 600,000 votes from global viewers via Kinolights.

Netflix’s Mask Girl won Best Supporting Actor awards for both Ahn Jae-hong and Yeom Hye-ran.

The Best Writer honors were awarded to Ju Hwa-mi for The Atypical Family,...

Chinese drama series Blossoms Shanghai scooped two top prizes at the Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards in Busan tonight (October 6).

The series, which marks the first foray into TV for auteur director Wong Kar-wai, won the best creative award for “the most outstanding work” as well as the best lead actor (male) prize for Hu Ge, who plays a self-made millionaire in 1990s Shanghai. The series was released on China’s Tencent Video streaming platform.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Further top prizes went to Coupang Play’s South Korean series Boyhood, which won best Ott original,...

Chinese drama series Blossoms Shanghai scooped two top prizes at the Asia Contents Awards & Global Ott Awards in Busan tonight (October 6).

The series, which marks the first foray into TV for auteur director Wong Kar-wai, won the best creative award for “the most outstanding work” as well as the best lead actor (male) prize for Hu Ge, who plays a self-made millionaire in 1990s Shanghai. The series was released on China’s Tencent Video streaming platform.

Scroll down for full list of winners

Further top prizes went to Coupang Play’s South Korean series Boyhood, which won best Ott original,...

Wong Kar-wai’s series debut “Blossoms Shanghai” won two of the top awards at the Busan International Film Festival‘s sixth annual Asia Contents Awards and Global Ott (streaming) Awards on Sunday. The Tencent Video Chinese series won best creative and best male lead actor for Hu Ge.

Kamila Andini and Ifa Isfansyah won best director for Indonesian Netflix series “Cigarette Girl.” The best female lead actor award went to Ariel Lin for Pts Taiwan’s “Imperfect Us.”

Coupang Play’s Korean show “Boyhood” won best Ott original. Salem Entertainment’s “1286” from Kazakhstan won the best Asian contents award.

Ahn Jaehong and Yeom Hye-ran won the male and female supporting actor awards respectively for Netflix’s Korean show “Mask Girl.” The best male acting newcomer award was shared by Chae Jong-heop for TBS Television’s Japanese show “Eye Love You” and Kim Yo-han for Netflix’s Korean series “A Killer Paradox.

Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (Fpp) has unveiled a selection of 63 titles for its 2024 project market from directors including Kiwi Chow and Hsieh Pei-ju and producers such as Fran Borgia and Sylvia Chang.

The diverse line-up comprises 38 in-development, 13 work-in-progress film titles and 12 series, and marks the first time the entire selection has been revealed in one announcement.

The projects will be presented at the Golden Horse event, which will take place in Taipei from November 18-20. In addition to a large delegation from Taiwan, there are also projects from Southeast Asia, mainland China and international collaborations that involve Japan,...

Streaming Sensations

The Busan International Film Festival‘s sixth annual Asia Contents Awards and Global Ott Awards has revealed its nominees across 11 competitive categories.

Pts Taiwan’s “Imperfect Us” leads with five nominations, followed by Indonesian Netflix series “Cigarette Girl” with four. Wong Kar-wai‘s series debut “Blossoms Shanghai” (Tencent Video) and Korea’s “A Killer Paradox” (Netflix) each have three nods. Other multiple nominees include Korea’s “Daily Dose of Sunshine” (Netflix) and “Lovely Runner” (Cj Enm Studios/Bon Factory) and Thai Prime Video series “Enigma” (Gmmtv).

The best lead actor (male) category sees Hu Ge (“Blossoms Shanghai”), Yim Si-wan (“Boyhood”), Choi Woo-shik (“A Killer Paradox”), Wu Kang Ren (“Living”), Cho Jin-woong (“No way Out: The Roulette”) and Sakai Masato (“Vivant”) competing for the award.

For best lead actor (female), nominees include Dian Sastrowardoyo (“Cigarette Girl”), Park Bo-young (“Daily Dose Of Sunshine”), Nikaido Fumi (“Eye Love You”), Ariel Lin...

The Hong Kong International Film Festival Society (Hkiffs) has added 15 work-in-progress projects to the 22nd Hong Kong-Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf), rounding up a bumper line-up of the new Hkiff Project Market.

This year, Haf joins the inaugural Hkiff Industry-caa China Genre Initiative (Hcg) to create the new Hkiff Industry Project Market, which will showcase 47 projects, including 26 previously announced in-development Haf projects and six Hcg projects.

The Wip section will introduce the latest works by notable filmmakers such as Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Mark Gill, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui, and Yang Chao as well as by prominent and emerging actors,...

Leading Asian filmmakers including Chang Tso-Chi, Lav Diaz, Midi Z, Tan Chui Mui and Yang Chao are poised to make appearances next month at the Work-in-Progress section of the Hong Kong – Asia Film Financing Forum (Haf) project market.

Haf organizers Thursday added 15 Wip projects, having previously selected 26 in-development projects and six genre film projects in the CAA China Genre Initiative.

The 47-project Hkiff Industry Project Market will run March 11-13, alongside the 2024 edition of the Hong Kong International Film & TV Market (FilMart), which operates March 11-14..

Highlights include: “The Land is Our Navel,” directed by Zhang Zhongchen (“The White Cow”) and produced by Midi Z (director of 2019’s “Nina Wu” and the upcoming “The Unseen Sister”), depicting the surreal journey of a six-year-old girl and a ghost;

“The Wind is Unstoppable,” by Huo Meng (“Crossing the Border – Zhaoguan”), about small-town family life before China’s rural-urban migration; “Deep Quiet Room,...

BBC Acquires Aussie Spin-Off Of ‘Death In Paradise’

The BBC will air Return to Paradise, an Australia-set spin-off of the long-running series Death in Paradise. Filming next year, the six-part series will be produced by BBC Studios Productions Australia alongside Death in Pardise maker Red Planet Pictures for the ABC, in association with the BBC. Set in the idyllic, beachside hamlet of Dolphin Cove,the series will be a “gripping, twisting and fiendishly clever murder mysteries – all against the spectacular backdrop of the Australian coastal landscape.” The plot follows Australian ex-pat Mackenzie Clarke, the seemingly golden girl of the London Metropolitan police force, who is suddenly forced to up sticks and move back to her childhood home of Dolphin Cove. When a murder takes place in Dolphin Cove, Mack can’t help but put her inspired detective brilliance to good use. The series is created and executive produced by Peter Mattessi,...

This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open with a double bill of Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, and Be With Me, from Taiwanese filmmaker Hwarng Wern-ying.

The festival observed that the two films are “coincidentally inspired by faith and narrated in historical memories of Taiwan and Malaysia” – and both are directed by previous winners at Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards.

Chong won Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards for The Story Of Southern Islet in 2020, while Hwarng, an acclaimed art director and long-time collaborator of Hou Hsiao-hsien, won Best Art Direction and Best Makeup & Costume Design for Flowers Of Shanghai and The Assassin, respectively.

A collaboration between Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, Snow In Midsummer revolves around a Cantonese street opera troupe during a turbulent period in Malaysia’s political history in the late 1960s. The film is receiving its world premiere in Venice Days.

‘Tales Of Taipei’ set as closing film.

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (Tghff) is set to open with a double bill of Chong Keat Aun’s Snow In Midsummer and acclaimed art director Hwarng Wern-ying’s directorial debut Be With Me, with Bowie Tsang-produced omnibus Tales Of Taipei as the closing film.

Both opening films took part in Golden Horse Film Project Promotion project market in 2020 and will have their Asian premieres at Tghff. The world premiere for Snow In Midsummer will be at the Venice Days sidebar of the Venice Film Festival, which begins today.

Malaysian director...

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival has announced dual opening night titles, both inspired by faith and local memories, as well as its closing gala presentation.

The festival will open with “Snow in Midsummer,” directed by Chong Keat-aun, a former winner of the Golden Horse Film Awards’ best new director prize with “The Story of Southern Islet,” and “Be With Me,” by Hwarng Wern-ying, who previously won Golden Horse prizes for art direction, costume and makeup.

The festival, which runs Nov. 9-26, will close with the world premiere of “Tales of Taipei,” produced by Bowie Tsang and comprising ten stories by directors from East Asia.

The two opening films were both part of the 2020 Golden Horse Project Promotion, a project matching event. They both have their Asian premiere at the festival.

“Snow in Midsummer” is a story spanning nearly half a century about two generations of females, a troupe master and the Nyonya offspring,...

Inaugural slate includes ‘Be With Me’ and ‘Abang Adik’.

Taiwanese distributor Applause Entertainment Taiwan is moving into sales and will make its market debut in Cannes, with Hou Hsiao-Hsien-produced Be With Me and Lee Sinje-produced award-winning Malaysian film Abang Adik on its inaugural slate.

Be With Me is directed by Hou’s long-time collaborator Hwarng Wern-Ying, who won the Golden Horse Awards for best art director and best makeup and costume design for Flowers Of Shanghai and The Assassin respectively. She also worked as a supervising art director on Martin Scorsese’s Silence, which shot in Taiwan.

Starring Ariel Lin,...

The producing debuts of two actors are among the 27 film projects selected for the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion. The project market is attached to the Golden Horse Film Festival, held annually in Taiwan.

The selections comprise 22 efforts still at project stage and five which are works in progress. They include Taiwanese productions and co-productions with the U.S., Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia. They were whittled down from more than 200 applications.

Former Golden Horse Award-winning actress Lee Sinje (“The Eye”) is set as the executive producer of the Malaysian title “ABang ADik” directed by Jin Ong, a previous winner of the Golden Horse Fpp Grand Prize. Ariel Lin (“A Choo”), two-time winner of Golden Bell best actress, is the producer of Chou Mei-yu’s “The Blind Love,” a Taiwan project.

Other Taiwan projects include “Detention” producer Aileen Li teaming up with Lin Chun-yang, Golden Bell best director winner, to co-direct “SARStorm”; “Call of Lobster,...

Romantic drama is Andrew Chien’s first film since 2015 hit Go Lala Go 2.

Singapore-based Clover Films has snapped up ten Southeast Asian territories on Taiwanese filmmaker Andrew Chien’s Your Love Song, which is being handled internationally by We Distribution.

Chien’s first film since 2015 hit Go Lala Go 2, the romantic drama stars Fu Meng Bo (Detention), Alice Ke and reality show winner Poan Hsieh. Local release is scheduled for the end of 2019.

Clover has acquired the film for Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, Brunei, Laos, Indonesia, Myanmar and Cambodia.

Set in 2007, when the first iPhone was launched and Youtube and Facebook were just established,...

Chicago – The biological clock ticks for all women, and this life event is magnanimously given a wildly creative treatment in the new film “My Egg Boy.” This story from Taiwan is part of the fourth season of the Asian Pop-Up Cinema series in Chicago.

..taking place on Wednesday, March 29th, 2017, at the downtown AMC River East Theatre. Director Fu Tien Yu will be in attendance. For complete details and to purchase tickets, click here.

The Fourth Season of Chicago’s Asian Pop-Up Cinema Continues with ‘My Egg Boy’

Photo credit: AsianPopUpCinema.org

The heroine in the film is Mei-pao (Ariel Lin), a product manager for a frozen food company. She is not lucky in love, as her passion for business makes connection difficult. Taiwan happens to be the leading country for freezing “eggs” for women, and Mei-pao follows through on the procedure, with a ten year window to utilize them to have a child.

The sequel will receive a theatrical release in December.

Asia’s pay TV group Fox International Channels (Fic) has partnered with China-based film and TV production and distribution outfit New Classics Media (Ncm) on upcoming title Go Lala Go 2.

The project, which has been developed at Ncm, is scheduled for release in China and the wider Asia-Pacific region in December.

Go Lala Go 2, a sequel to Xu Jingle’s 2010 Go Lala Go, is a romantic drama based on a Chinese novel that follows a career-focused woman who must choose between her boyfriend who she has been dating for several years and a new romantic flame.

Ariel Lin, Vic Zhou and Chen Bolin have been announced in the cast.

The film will be release on December 4 in China, Singapore, North America, Australia and New Zealand, with Hong Kong and Macau following on December 10, and Taiwan on December 11.

After its theatrical run, the film will...