 Right, welcome to the final of our Understanding Taiwan Through Film and Documentary film series. This is film number 10 and it's the fifth film of our first ever Taiwan Film Week. I'm delighted to see so many of you here on such an awful day in terms of weather and of course on Valentine's Day. I'm glad that when I was doing the advertising, it was our Valentine's Day screening. Let me just say a few words about what we're trying to do in this film series. We're trying to link Taiwanese film to the kind of courses that we have on Taiwan here at SOAS. So we're trying to look at a number of themes like national identity, social change, nationalism, Taiwan-China relations and Taiwan's modern history and its historical relationship with Japan and China. And that's the kind of themes that have kind of overlapped with many of the films that we've looked at both this week and last term. Today's film is really looking at social change. It's a film set in Punggol and Gaoshan in the 1980s. And it's one of my favourite Ho Xiaoshan films. I particularly like his early films. Perhaps because I first went to Taiwan in the 1980s. I've got a special soft spot for that period. Today, I'm delighted to welcome Minier Ronsley, who's our research associate here. Although she lives in the far west of Wales. So it takes her about six hours to get here to London. Minier has been a very prolific publisher in a number of fields in Taiwan studies. On Taiwan's media, particularly public television, Taiwan film and democratisation. And she's going to give a short introduction to the film and then we'll do the screening and have a Q&A at the end. The other thing I should say about Minier is that she's the Secretary General of the European Association of Taiwan. And she's been working very hard to promote Taiwan studies beyond the UK. Okay, so over to you, Minier. Thank you very much, David. And it was really very pleasing to see so many people come to see a film. Like Dada said, on such awful night. I will keep my talk short. The aim of the Taiwan Film Week in SoA's is to help audiences understand Taiwan through films. And Boyz from Feng Gui is a fictional feature film. So it is quite problematic for me to try to make a claim that we can or should to learn certain facts about Taiwan by watching this film. In fact, I think perhaps it is more important, or at least equally important to the aim of the project, that if we can actually create an environment where audiences can watch the film without too much baggage or too many presumptions and simply enjoy the viewing experience. Therefore, in this pre-screening talk, I will try not to give too much away about the story of the film, but I will situate the film within a broader context of Taiwan history and history of Taiwan cinema by making two bold statements. After the screening, upon quick reflection, you may find yourself agree with or wish to challenge my statements. In this way, I hope we can establish an interesting, if not good basis for discussion during the Q&A session. Moreover, as actually in this audience, we have people who know about filmmaking in Taiwan. Sorry, I should delete this. You know, originally director Zhong Chen is going to be here with us, but then he had other engagements, so he left early. Never mind, but there are actually other film and cultural scholars who are very familiar with Taiwan cinema and culture, such as Professor Chris Berry, who just appeared and made me very nervous, and also Professor San Zi Lan is here. And we also have scholars who are extremely knowledgeable about Taiwan politics, such as Professor Dafu Feil. So I'm sure their input will further strengthen the depth of our discussion, especially if there are any questions that I am unqualified or unable to answer. So here goes my two statements. First, I will claim that Boyz from Fen Gui is an early classic of Taiwan New Cinema, which is the most important film movement in Taiwan to date. The movement of Taiwan New Cinema occurred between 1982 and 1987, which coincided with Taiwan's political democratization and social liberalization. I think it's more accurate to say that Taiwan New Cinema is culturally instead of a politically motivated movement. However, the movement does generate some political consequences. For example, the abolishment of policies which restrict the use of local languages in Taiwan cinema, and also the creation of a discourse about Taiwan's national cinema. Second, one of the key questions that Taiwan New Cinema endeavored to address was the search for a new cinematic form, a new type of films and filmmaking that allows the filmmakers true reflection on their own experiences and feelings. Hou Xiaoxian is one of the most important filmmakers of Taiwan New Cinema. In his earlier works during the period of Taiwan New Cinema, he developed a unique autobiographical or sometimes just biographical approach to filmmaking. However, even though the themes of Taiwan New Cinema may be personal, it is often read allegorically. Hou Xiaoxian's protagonist often becomes an observer in the story. We may see the protagonist's emotions and reactions towards the event, but we do not know what he or she thinks because Hou Xiaoxian deliberately leaves it ambiguous, and this is the beauty of Hou's works. Taiwan New Cinema was the first film movement in Taiwan history when filmmakers were able to tackle deep and serious questions about Taiwan society and personal identity. However, it does not mean that filmmakers have obtained an ultimate truth or convincing answers. Hence, in Feng Gui and many other Hou's films such as A City of Sadness, the filmmaker shared with us his observations and his attitude, sometimes very philosophical and empathetic in accepting these observations and allowing them to evolve without placing judgment. I would say without judgment does not mean being indifferent. Without further ado, we'll watch the film and then we'll have the Q&A afterwards. Enjoy the film. We'll go straight into it. Any questions and comments? I would think maybe just sort of a discussion informally so anybody who wants to make a start, please feel free to do so. Do you like the film? Yes. Okay, so I will have questions. It's a film made in 1983 in Taiwan, but even you didn't live in Taiwan during that time. Do you feel actually there is some sort of a commonality? Why do you like it? Please. It needs to be a kind of universal stupidity of young men. Right, okay. I don't really know the sexist way. Why I retain it is that there's just a massive level of sexual repression which means that what they should be doing is getting ready and understanding what they are doing and slapping each other around their head a lot. And I think that that's something which I suspect is pretty global. And that's something I find very funny about the film. I was surprised as well at how 80s it looked to me. So I think that as well is something that's interesting that there's a kind of flattening out of global culture where increasingly things are at the same head and they're all around the whole planet and it's expected of which kind of people. Okay, thank you. Certainly I think that process of growing up, like you said, stupidity, and a lot of times actually you couldn't really work out your self's position with the past, with your present, so much to work out, and actually also the impending future for these young men actually obviously going to be the soldier, imposed on them, but how do you face that? But a lot of times you throw yourself into the moment. And also actually I think a lot of elements also make the link to the few films that we watched the day before yesterday. So a lot of the things, it just makes you think culture per se really don't change because actually a lot of the bromance that we talked about a few days ago is still coming through. And also if you want to look at from a gender relationship, the men and women, again, they still seem to continue today. It hasn't really changed that much in many ways, but that's my own observation in terms of Taiwan society. Yeah, thanks for being here for choosing this film. I mean, I'm somebody who lived in Gaussian for many years, so it was interesting for me to see what had changed and what hadn't changed. It was actually more than I expected, hadn't changed. The one question I had was do you know anything about the, what was the audience reaction like to this film back in 1993? Right, okay. Because I can imagine it's quite different from the kind of films that most Taiwanese audiences were used to at that point in time. Yeah, so this was actually the film that was popular. So there was a time when Taiwanese cinema appeared to be actually financially viable, commercially viable. So this is one of the popular films within Taiwanese cinema. And I think in a film there were also some comments, social comments about what's going on. So for example, the movies that actually they saw in the film, you know, the Kung Fu movie, that was actually hugely popular. And that's what the audience consumed. Hence, you know, to say Taiwan New Cinema early is what I said about this movement actually tried to make a new kind of films that actually closer to the reality in some way actually to try to against this sort of very formulaic outfit. You know, I think some of them fantastic. However, it was just sort of very formulaic, not really related to what's going on in Taiwan. So it was actually a commercial success? Yes. It seemed to me that you can't buy this film anywhere. Right, okay. So in terms of the Taiwan New Cinema's copyright, the translation of English was quite bad. As long as you can't understand just... Yeah, so I think that copyright is a big issue. A lot of films during that period, either you couldn't actually get copies with English subtitles, or actually you know it does exist, but you just have nowhere to obtain it. And I know for this particular copy, in fact we had to get in touch with the Hou Xiaoxian's company and they made a copy for David. So any other comments, you know? Michael, please. In the 80s you think there's a lot of different really Taipei and Gaosheng. Yeah, to what degree the difference? Yes, I can remember the 84, my first time in Taiwan. Right. I didn't get to the south that year, but I can't help wondering that there was quite a difference between them. Would you say so? Can I understand what you mean by the difference? You know, you can. Socially, socially. You mean people are extremely tentative in the public and also the background and the cultural village. In term was also very different from Gaosheng as it came out in the film. So there must have been these geographical cultural differences, I think. Yes, okay. In 1983 I was in Gaosheng. I didn't go to Taipei until in 19... When did I go to Taipei? Yeah, I went to Taipei to study. I think it was in 1984, 1985. Yeah, so when I first... I think the difference to me is subtle. I didn't feel, wow, it was a completely huge city, so different from my life experience. But I think the subtle difference comes from... In Gaosheng, I consider myself a film fan all my life because of my dad. But the films I watched are the things actually you can really access on TV and also in cinema. So I think the biggest shock for me, the moment actually when I was in university in Taipei, was to realize so many other peers. Yeah, so they're about the same peers. Also can see themselves as a film fan. But if they live in Taipei, the type of film they accessed was completely out my reach. So I think that will be, to me, the largest difference. So they already accessed the European cultural films, Udi Allen. So yeah, so to me I just feel I had a lot to catch up. So I think in terms of the cultural resources in balance in Taiwan, this being talked about for decades. So Taipei in that sense is always much more advanced and all the resources are available to the capital while cities outside Taipei, even Gaosheng was the second largest city, but it doesn't seem to have that resources available to them. But in terms of economy, I think in the 1980s I wouldn't say there was that much difference. Although in the 1980s the Gaosheng action we saw on screen was the Gaosheng that I remembered when I grew up, which is very different from today. So the coach, the bus is all, so quickly our life has become history because you don't see them. These vehicles don't exist anymore. So yeah, so in some ways it was quite daunting to realize part of your life already can be in museums and history, modern history. Somebody don't manage Taiwan. Actually there's a lot of similarities with the world now. So I see a lot of similarities. For example, the way they dress, they actually try to be trained. And today you find those what we call the 90s generation. We've had this so long to cover half of their face and we're getting factories doing very low level jobs. That's quite interesting. One question I have is about the music. I was a bit puzzled by the use of Western music in the film. The music produces Li Zhongsheng. I wonder why they don't use any local Chinese, Taiwanese music because it's a very good music industry. What was the situation there with the working industry in the 1980s? Was the working class part of a theme of the cinema movement that they were talking about? The music industry? The working class theme. Is it part of the movement? You talked about hotel team. This is the 80s. Right, I may be wrong, but my instinct was actually in terms is less of a class-conscious movement. I think it's more of self-discovery and self-disclosure. And so a lot is to do with whatever the filmmakers or the writers, the scriptwriters, their friends, their common experience. But in terms of the music, that's an interesting point. Li Zhongsheng was very popular in Taiwan at the time. I know he came from Hong Kong and studied in Taiwan, and then he actually became a big pop star. I don't know why Hou Xiaoxian chose Li Zhongsheng's music instead of a local Taiwanese, but that actually could be to do with Hou Xiaoxian's own music taste. I don't know. So this is really just I suspect. And in terms of the layer of the movie, in terms of the visual, the story and the sound, often I think it was not necessary to directly talk to each other, to actually create that complexity. So while the story, perhaps, was very tense emotionally, a very tense emotion of the Aqin character. The music was very smooth, and that actually does create that kind of ambivalence because it's not necessarily trying to build up his tension as he's going to burst out of crying. And I think to me it's always because to do with, he has so much to work through about his true feelings about things. And often you don't necessarily have that leisure of working things out at your pace because they're just so many other external factors. You just have to push you to make a particular decision. I know that slightly go outside in what you're asking about the choice of music. But the truth is I don't know. But I don't know if anybody can enlighten us, if you have any. Hello. I want to say that the funniest part for me was they paid £900 worth of widescreen coverage. Yes. How can we do that first, isn't it? I just want to echo that latest impression about the similarity between New York and Taiwan and the current China because it was the seams about the factories that impressed me most because this is exactly what's happening in mainland China. By the way, I'm from mainland China too. But what's happening on mainland China is on a much more massive scale. So I think this film by Hou Xiaoxian and its meaning on the social development and the social changes can be applied to mainland China. And I've also got a very short question about the main actor, Niu Chenze. How do you think he's acting because... I ask this because Hou Xiaoxian is the director and he chose Niu Chenze as the main actor. But I remember several years ago when Niu Chenze directed Manga and acted himself, his acting was criticized by Hou Xiaoxian. My personal interpretation of how I see the acting itself. I often, to be honest, I always tell people that I don't have taste. I'm not very picky about many things. I think it was as natural as it can be. So in fact, I think for this film itself, so his reaction, that facing the camera, I think it's often his audience all reading about how he's really feeling. He was just staring in the camera to be filmed. But yeah, so for this film itself, I think it's okay, I don't know. How do you feel about his work? The brother-in-law is Hou Xiaoxian himself. So what do you think about his acting? Yeah, exactly. So I think it was quite natural, fitting with the role, with the story. It was not... It's very much like how life actually developed. So it wasn't a lot of dramatic twists and turns. Hence, at the same time, it doesn't require... Perhaps actually when you overreact, overacting can be actually a problem for films of this nature. Yeah, because it wasn't... Try to tell you particular things. You know, how much he loved this girl and how much he's frustrated or actually how much he regret he didn't tell his dad. He loved his dad. In fact, I think his relation with his dad is actually, again, very ambiguous. We know actually there are some deep emotions, but we don't know the emotion. And the thing is, when you are not really so sure about how you interpret that emotion, how do you act it to become insane? So perhaps actually less acting is better choice because then audience can make its own interpretations for films at least. I'm curious about something. I've only ever been to Taiwan in recent years and never Galshawng, and obviously it's totally different to what I saw there. Like if I was to watch a British film, say, in the 1980s, it would essentially be the same Britain that we see now. And that, like to me, was more like Philippines and how I imagined Thailand to be than what I experienced of Taiwan when I was living there. So I was wondering, when a Taiwanese person watches that now, the younger Taiwanese person around my age or younger, do they also feel that it's their home and their culture or is it also a totally different world to them? Right. That's interesting. Again, I would just say, they should feel the same, but I don't know. Do we have a younger generation Taiwanese here? Maybe you can tell us, do you feel this in Taiwan? Do you feel familiar with it and you recognize it? Or how do you see it? Hello everyone. Thank you very much for choosing the film. I represent the Taiwanese Fellowship. We have a large group of people here. Oh, okay. I have two points that I want to solicitate your questions earlier about the music. I used to love in France and in Paris, we often like to, you see that broadcast some Taiwanese film that's quite popular. And from my understanding about the music, about the people that are in this film, there seems to be some influences by the New York. Am I right? And the use of the music, actually, I think maybe it's an option from Hoda, the director, because we know originally from full season, if I'm right, if I'm wrong, please correct me. And I found it as a very interesting observation is whenever there's a big introduction of changes in life, you will see the classic music that's accompanied with the film. It's sort of, I think, sort of Hoda's philosophy of life. Or a lot of people will share that feel that our life is like four seasons, right? And so, USD, that's the second point about how young generations thought of Hoda, Campari. I'm actually from Kaohsiung. So by that time, I possibly just born. But I can tell you that I felt in the first part of the time when there's not actually, you cannot tell the bourgeoisie, how we got to pronounce that. You know, the middle class or working class, you couldn't really tell, actually. Because, of course, they are sort of fashionable because in the south, people, they, the local culture, don't like to represent themselves which class they come from. They just like to be casual. And for the, you see that open markets and how we cut the fish in the court. We can still see that nowadays. There's a lot of respect, a very new building. That's why I love Kaohsiung that the originality of the styles of Taiwan. But I've been away from Taiwan for many, many years now. And I can see the big changes, mostly in Taipei. And Kaohsiung has some changes, but they are more green. Sorry, it sounds like a promo, a little bit Kaohsiung. But I really love that. Thank you. When do we have to finish? Let's take one more question. We haven't really talked about the difference between Fengui, Penghu and Kaohsiung. Because Kaohsiung in the film actually represents the city. And these boys are originally from these small islands. They are actually not part of the main island of Taiwan. So I think the contrast there is very much a rural versus urban contrast. So it's not just a class issue. It's also geographic difference, cultural difference within Taiwan and the island, the small islands, cultural islands. So that's one point I wanted to make. And then I think, maybe Kaohsiung as a city, of course, is different from Taipei. Because at that point in time, there was a lot of industry. In the film, there are the factories. And then the boyfriend of the girl, the teen likes, he's become a sailor. He's gone to sea. So there are all these fishing industries and also the factories, etc. So Kaohsiung's economy at that point was very vibrant. They tried. But since then, in terms of the volume of the port, then it has declined. So there's a big difference. But we don't really see that in the film. But at that point, I think Kaohsiung represents this very vibrant port city that was really, really important in at least an Asian economy. So that's the second point. And I wanted to just say something about Kaohsiung's acting. I think it's fabulous, actually. Even though he's not really dramatic, I think the repression they feel in his body language and his facial expression, that was all very, very appropriate for this role. Thank you. Thank you. Did you want to take one last question? I know I see the hand for quite a while. The guy at the back? Yes, please. So that would be the final comment. He's been quite a few of the films. Thank you. I really enjoyed the film. The discussion about music, I just really understand it because obviously he's a great filmmaker and the music worked, you know, whether it was local Taiwanese music or what. And I think possibly he had some influence as well from, I've seen a film by Pia Paolo Pasalini, an Italian near-realist film, and he uses one of the films. I think it's called Akitoni. He does a similar, the music's very similar. And it's just those kind of long panning shots. But I really found it moving. I really got a sense of the, he was trying to show the impermanence, of everything, you know, nothing, nothing lasts. I think it came, I missed the beginning so I can't really judge the whole film just seeing that. I think it was good. By the way, that film was Drunken Master. Yes. I think it was Drunken Master. I'm sorry, it's Christmas. See you again for the film. Thank you. Okay, let me just say a few words of thanks. Can we give Minyea a round of applause? Let me just say a few words of thanks to people that have made this film series, and particularly this week possible. Firstly, of course, we've got to thank the Ministry of Culture for their support. Secondly, of course, I've got to thank those directors and film scholars that have come, Minyea, Sanze Lan, and also Zhongquan, who showed three of his films. The next person I've got to thank is W, who chaired the sessions Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and did simultaneous translation for Zhongquan. She did an amazing job. I've also got to thank my support team, Nikki Olsford, who did the publicity, the posters, for example. A lot of those harassing emails were from either me or Nikki. Jewel Law, who's been doing the website, the Facebook. Is there anyone else I should thank? Oh yeah, I've got to thank Pablo for giving us a wonderful catering idea. And another one who's helped a lot in publicity is Dean, who's been here for all five films. And I think there's quite a few of you who have been here for five, four or three films. I want to thank you for coming on Bad Weather and in Reading Week. And hopefully we'll be back. Our next films are planned for late July, and Wanderen is due to come to London. So hopefully this will be the start of a lot of wonderful Taiwanese documentaries and films. So once again, thanks for all your support.