Leon Dai

Each member of a family in Taipei asks hard questions about life's meaning as they live through everyday quandaries. NJ is morose: his brother owes him money, his mother is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.

Wei is “Button man”, an expert cleaner for the Chinese Mafia, a man who arrives after a murder, takes care of the victim, disposing the body and leaves no evidence behind. Who would have thought one day, he would become a target of their list. (Mei Ah)

Sacrificial Victims

Kara-Orchestra

An FBI Agent pairs with a troubled Taiwan cop to hunt for a serial killer who's embedding a mysterious fungus in the brains of victims.

A policeman, who is fearless to death, can do anything for just one truth, while a gangster, who fears death the most, has drew life threats from his risky action all for love. One policeman and one gangster can be great partners that you have never imagined. Somehow, rescue of the world now is entirely relying on the partners. Within 36 hours, they must resolve the crisis that could destroy the Harbor City...

A strict and unapproachable father and his two sons live in a soon-to-be-renovated old house. The younger brother likes to tag after his older brother as if it was the most important task of his life. Day after day, they lived in calm peace, like nothing would ever change. It wasn't until a mysterious moment that happened one summer afternoon where things changed...

The Pact of Choshui River

Passionate about life and art, young researcher Ching is in love with museum historian Tung-Heng, but he is absorbed in his work. Then Tao arrives in Taiwan to view an item of historical calligraphy, and they realize why he pursues calligraphy.

A female director decides to make a autobiographical film on her love life and we see it through the use of flashbacks and brilliant intercutting.

Chuan, a quiet 30-year-old man working as a chef in a Japanese restaurant, collapses suddenly and is rushed to a hospital. His colleagues send him to his father, who resides in the mountains. While there, Chuan becomes immobile: he won’t speak, eat or even go to the toilet on his own. One day his father returns from work only to find Chuan sitting in the corner with his daughter lying dead in a pool of blood. In an unfamiliar, eerily calm voice, Chuan says, “I saw this body was empty, so I moved in.

The film consists of three stories: One about a 5-year-old girl, one about a teenager, and still another about a 30 something woman involved in an affair with a married man. Without providing a definite answer whether the three leading actresses are playing the same person in different stages of life, the movie instead hovers on several consistent themes that keep on emerging in all the stories. For example, the image of drops of blood on the clothes, in the shape of maroon flowers.

Fall of Ming

Mark, a man who commits perjury for his company in order to help his mother. However, he meets a mysterious person who threatens him and forces him to rob a bank. After the theft, the mysterious person continues to cause disasters to happen to Mark, which is when Mark vows to break free from this person's control and expose his or her true identity.

On Mother's Day in Taipei, Chen Mo makes a date for dinner with his wife, hoping to bring their estranged relationship back together. While buying a cake on his way home, a car unexpectedly double parks next to his car, preventing his exit.

With a singular voice that distinguishes him from his New Taiwan Cinema contemporaries, Lin Cheng-sheng adds to his brief, but already remarkable, filmography with Sweet Degeneration, his third film in two years. As with A Drifting Life and Murmur of Youth, Lin’s new film delicately unfolds, gradually building to a climax of stunning emotional reverberations. Drawn from a particularly painful episode in the director’s past, Sweet Degeneration delves into the uneasy bonds a brother and sister have with each other and the people around them.

1945-1947, Taiwan. A teenage couple were deeply in love despite objections from the girl’s family. Their tragic story is played out in travelling troupes, tea-houses and western-style cafes, with the backdrop of Japanese occupation and the 28 February Incident.

The film follows Robinson, a very succesfull real estate broker, who lives in a modern hotel in Taipei. But all the success also hides a lonely man, whose relations are becoming distant, including friends and lovers; Robinson's dream is the Crusoe, an island on the Caribbean, which he wants to try purchase.

Country: China Production Company: Angel Wings Entertainment Genre: Drama Director: Zhao Tian Yu Starring: Wen Zhang, Bai Bai He, Zhang Jing Chu, Guo Tao, Leon Dai, Karen Mok, Bowen Duan, Huang Huan Length: 97 mins Date of release: 8th April, 2011

Just coming out of the jail, depressed and close-hearted, Ah Yu met two men with different characters from each other. One is a businessman, charming and mature; the other is a young supervisor in a factory with a promising future. But these two loves are short-lived, fading away like bubbles on the beach. With a wounded soul, she went back to the cottage owned by Sister An, a friend from jail.

Life is not the most fulfilling for sixteen-year-old Meng: Lounging at home with his grieving father on a daily basis, being excluded from his family’s past, and forced into bullying other kids at school. Everything changes when he is thrown into a life-altering adventure that propels him into an exciting unfamiliar landscape.

The Stone On the Corner

Huihua, a music school freshman, is raped by Professor Lee. She files a suit against him with the help of another professor, who involves his attorney friend, Fang Anyu. As the film focuses on the secondary abuse inflicted on Huihua, it narrows in on the characters’ inner lives. Why does Fang Anyu defend Huihua while his marriage crumbles? Why does attorney Lin so actively defend her husband? Above all, Huihua’s complex psyche is evident in the words, "I may have loved Professor Lee," changes the film into something beyond a simple courtroom drama.

Lawrence Lau directs Ballistic, a crime thriller that uses the turbulent world of Taiwanese politics to tell a riveting story of cops, corruption, and how righteousness still has value in this grey-shaded world.

On a rusting cargo ship in the South China Sea, it's the young Polish captain's first command. His mutinous Chinese crew suspect him and his unscrupulous Boss of planning to scuttle the ship for an insurance scam. When the crew abandon ship, the young captain is left alone on board, helpless, anchored in a bay. That night while waiting anxiously on deck, he finds a naked body floating in the sea below, tangled up in the ship's rope ladder. Pulling the ladder, the captain discovers a Chinese woman in distress. She climbs on board, saying only "Hide me". Dawn comes a few hours later and so does a search party, looking for a murderer.....

“Chopin” tells the story of Chopin Wu (played by Liu), who returns home to small-town America where he grew up to amend an estranged relationship with his workaholic father (Dai). With a sudden appearance from his ailing grandmother (Chen), he is confronted by a past he had left behind. In the midst of a health crisis and a broken family, Wu is forced to re-examine old relationships, embrace a heritage he once denied and discover the importance of family and identity.

10+10 is a project initiated by the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival to demonstrate the solidarity between Taiwanese film-makers. 20 directors are invited to make a 5-minute short film each on the theme of the “Uniqueness of Taiwan,” but allowed total freedom in all other aspects.

A scientist uses his invention - the "Menger Sponge" - to capture the energy of a dead child's spirit in an old building. In trying to determine why the energy of the ghost does not dissipate, the team discovers the identity and the dramatic story of the boy.

9th century China. Ten year old general’s daughter Nie Yinniang is abducted by a nun who initiates her into the martial arts, transforming her into an exceptional assassin charged with eliminating cruel and corrupt local governors. One day, having failed in a task, she is sent back by her mistress to the land of her birth, with orders to kill the man to whom she was promised – a cousin who now leads the largest military region in North China. After 13 years of exile, the young woman must confront her parents, her memories and her long-repressed feelings.

Somewhere Over the Dreamland adopts a portmanteau form to provide a realistically poetic depiction of the sad fate of two generations of aboriginals as alienated laborers in Taipei city.

After falling in love with a traffic cop, a cab driver commits as many traffic violations as he can in order to see her again.

Burned by the desire to avenge her dead boyfriend, a Japanese woman learns to shoot a gun, and goes after the local Mafia in Taiwan. Mizuno Miki excels in her role as the grieving and estranged, then vengeful and cold-blooded foreigner.

On the night of their high school graduation, three delinquents decide to exchange their darkest, most unspeakable secret.

A web of connected stories on adventure, sex, and love in Taiwan, including a 17 y.o. boy with a porn obsession, three hoodlums, and a self-righteous police officer.

A violin teacher from a working-class background embarks on a brave journey in search of true love. The absurd process gradually makes her realize that returning to her true self is the only shortcut to happiness.

The Black Dog is about Mo, a husband and father, who worries a lot about losing his wife to cancer and raising their 10-year-old daughter alone. His daughter finds him crying out in his sleep.

Two loser high school students meet a wandering old man with unparalleled martial arts skills. Together, they not only strive to restore justice to their city but also unravel the mystery of the old man's identity.

The story follows a ten-year-old girl who teams up with animals from the Chinese Zodiac to search for a lost dragon and save the world from a treacherous conspiracy.

A-Yan and Xiao-Yu are strangers, but they look just like twins. A-Yan is a country boy who comes to the big city for a better future. However, the girl whom he falls for cheats him out of the insurance payout he has got from his grandmother’s illness. Xiao-Yu who owns a talent agency betrays his business partner. As a result of an attempted kidnap, their lives are entwined with each other.

Ten year-old Xiang faces a lonely future after his father dies. Just when he thinks he's going to spend his life in the orphanage, his estranged mother shows up. And his life changes forever... A loveless mother, a hateful stepfather, a chilly home. Where's Xiang heading to? He finds comfort in drawing and his work reveals his longing for care and affection. Life is full of hope again when he meets the old school janitor who doesn't show his kindness easily and a portly man who has crazy ideas and is haunted with nightmares of his brother. A scary truth is about to be unmasked. Will Xiang be able to depict his own image in the fourth portrait?

Set in ancient China, Zeng Jing is a skilled assassin who finds herself in possession of a mystical Buddhist monk's remains. She begins a quest to return the remains to its rightful resting place, and thus places herself in mortal danger because a team of assassins is in a deadly pursuit to possess the remains which holds an ancient power-wielding secret.

One rainy night, a woman takes refuge in At Cafe 6 after an argument with her boyfriend. She strikes up a conversation with the café owner, who shares a story from his youth.

The Chinese medical drama-thriller “Sentence Me Guilty” gives too much away in the early running and has nowhere special to go after that. Centered on a female doctor framed for highly unethical behavior in the wake of her young daughter’s death, the pic has some intriguing elements but generates little tension and doesn’t deliver the emotional clout auds might reasonably expect from a tale involving a grieving mother.

A Taiwanese drug mule has his foolproof smuggling method thrown out of whack when he catches a ride with the wrong cab driver.

Jade is a 30-year-old reporter who is after the story that will make her career. It turns out that a series of fires have been plaguing the city and a scoop on this story is just the thing she needs.

Ahda sells language tapes by day and attends cram school at night, but his real passion is to achieve the secret art of "vaulting" - defying gravity to leap impossible distances. Fired by the exploits of the legendary Red Lotus Society, Ahda is on a romantic quest for a master.

Set in China in the 1930s, the film is about the unsettling relationship between three characters, each involved with a performance of the opera Fleeing by Night in a local theatre.

There is usually only one full moon every month, but occasionally there are two – and that second full moon is called the Blue Moon. It is said that when a person sees a blue moon and makes a wish, he will be granted a second chance in things.

In the not-too distant future, 17 year-old Tye and his family move to the burgeoning metropolis of Real City, where, bored with classes, he spends his time daydreaming until one day he finds a magic stone that allows him to pass through walls. On a field trip to a museum, Tye meets NoNo, a deaf girl with bionic ears who is working as a museum docent. The two grow closer, until Tye discovers she has a boyfriend and demands she chooses between them. NoNo tells him to come and see her again in twenty years and then disappears from his life, leaving him only with a photo of her in front of a signpost saying Elsewhere. Tye uses the magic stone to go to Elsewhere, but he discovers a desolate world full of discarded things, among them an attractive blind girl, Ya-hung. Two worlds, two realities, two girls, what will Tye’s choice be ?

Security guard Pickle and his trash collector friend Belly Button kill time together in night shifts watching the American-educated boss's dash-cam recordings of his various sexual encounters with women. Against the buddies' will, something horrifying rather than erotic reveals.

The Deadly Strands is a 2013 Chinese horror film directed by Zhao Xiaoxi. It stars Leon Dai, Zak Zhai and Kong Qianqian. The film is released in China on 5th July. A radio talk show host and his family fall on troubled and terror-filled times when the ghost of his suicidal ex-wife finds a mysterious way to seek revenge on her cheating husband and find vindication with the children from his previous marriage. One by one strange accidents begin to occur, and bodies begin to pile up. The only common denominator between the deaths? The talk show host, his daughter, and a long beautiful wig.

In 2013, the Golden Horse Film Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary. The ministry of Culture commissioned director Yang Li-chou to make a documentary about the history of Golden Horse. What is unique to this film is that it's not an ode to celebrities but about the role cinema plays in ordinary people's lives. It's a love letter to cinema, filmmakers and audiences.

挟刀揉手

Determined to pass down his art, the Final Master of Wing Chun is caught in a power struggle with malicious local officials and ultimately must choose between personal honor and his master’s dying wish.

In 1987, as martial law ends in Taiwan, Jia-han and Birdy fall in love amid family pressure, homophobia and social stigma.

Han Yu-jie has been estranged from his father for a long time, but an incident in which a burglar breaks into their home at night forces him to temporarily return. As tensions between the family start to ease, Han Yu-jie notices a comic artist living next door lurking around their house. The artist, in a panic, confesses to having observed strange occurrences around the house after the burglary. Han Yu-jie, along with his ex-girlfriend and the comic artist, begins to investigate these peculiar events, only to realize that his seemingly familiar life is unraveling into something beyond his imagination. The concept of "home" can be an obsession. To maintain the image of a perfect family in one’s heart, some may even cling to lies. As Yu-jie inches closer to a reality he can never return to, what choices will he make?

The film uses Chinese actors to play the Japanese protagonist, uses Chinese perspectives to criticize Yamato’s militarism, and is filmed by a Taiwanese director born after the war. The story of the Japanese imperial army during World War II is a prominent feature in the history of Chinese cinema. Try. Although the creative ambition of the director Zhou Teng affected the overall performance of the film because of his wishful thinking on the theme and handling, his efforts in exploring new themes and the rigorous production attitude are still worthy of recognition.

An An (Guo Biting), a single young woman of marriageable age, is an ordinary white-collar worker in an advertising agency. She moved to get rid of her ex-boyfriend's harassment. The new neighbors are a pair of siblings. Her brother Pan Xiaozhe (played by Duan Yihong) likes to use biological knowledge. As a postdoctoral fellow in biology who looks at all daily affairs, his younger sister Pan Xiaoxing (played by Liu Yase) is optimistic and cheerful. In a competition for advertising proposals, Pan Xiaozhe, who often made people laugh or cry on weekdays, unexpectedly helped An An with his biological knowledge, and An An was promoted smoothly.

College student Hsiao Chih has been dreaming of studying abroad and having foreign affairs. His plan to fulfill this dream in the summer is, however, discouraged by economic down turn in Taiwan. Just as he feels depressed about the need to spend a long summer back home, taking care of his old grandma and her grocery store, here comes a Western girl named Elisa. One thing leads to another, Hsiao Chih and two women - his grandma and Elisa a girl from afar - spend a whole summer under the same roof...

To save a small business a group of outsiders decides to form a rock band.

A cute coed leaves her mother's home and gets involved with a pastry chef who has links to the local criminal element.

Peaceful Island

A 2000 PTS TV movie.

When the President's only daughter, Liu Xinping, checks into a hospital for her chemotherapy treatment, the head of internal medicine and the head of surgery become core members of the President's medical team. Both men plan to use this opportunity to prove themselves as the best candidate for the position of hospital director. As a result, the two men appoint rival surgeons to attend to Xiuping's surgery.

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards (Chinese: 台北金馬影展; pinyin: Táiběi Jīnmǎ Yǐngzhǎn; Pe̍h-ōe-jī: Tâi-pak Kim-má iáⁿ-tián) is a film festival and awards ceremony held annually in Taiwan. It was founded in 1962 by the Government Information Office of the Republic of China (ROC) in Taiwan. The awards ceremony is usually held in November or December in Taipei, although the event has also been held in other locations in Taiwan in recent times

Weng Wen-fang (Hsieh Ying-hsuan) came from a political family. She joined the Justice Party as the deputy director and spokesperson of the Publicity Department, after failing to be re-elected as a member of the Council. She led the publicity team in realizing their goals, but not without facing many challenges to their faith and values.

Taiwan’s first drama series utilizes magical realism to interweave local myths, folklore, and tales with current social issues, presenting a modern allegory that serves as a warning for Taiwan’s near future.