Retired and widowed Chinese master chef Chu lives in modern day Taipei, with his three attractive daughters, all of whom are unattached. Soon, each daughter encounters a new man in their lives. When these new relationships blossom, stereotypes are broken and the living situation within the family changes.
A woman, married off to an abusive butcher, is overpowered by the twin forces of patriarchy and tradition in Taiwan during circa 1920 to 1945.
Vicky recalls her romances with her exes Hao Hao and Jack in the neon-lit clubs of Taipei.
A boy experiences first love, friendships and injustices growing up in 1960s Taiwan.
In the early 1950s, even the small villages in Taiwan were bathed in the atmosphere of White Terror. It was a difficult time for all. There was a beautiful young woman called A-zhen. She always felt that there was something weird in her house since she got married to her husband, A-yi, the village glassblower. A-zhen was very curious about the mystery surrounding the wall in her house. So, one day, she decided to investigate the real secret behind the wall.
Through a famous painting "South Street Festival", a Taiwanese college boy unexpectedly travels 100 years back in time, back to the 1920's, when Taiwan was under Japanese rule. He is stuck, he panics, he wants to return to 2014 but soon changes his mind, not just because of the prettiest geisha girl in town...
Upon learning of his father's terminal illness diagnosis, a young, autistic, hearing-impaired artist travels back to Taiwan with a filmmaker to make a film in his honour.
The discovery of a discarded sofa, in Taipei city, transforms a routine Sunday into a capricious adventure of perseverance and self-discovery for Filipino guest workers Manuel and Dado.
The film is based on the true story of Yoichi Hatta (1886-1942), a civil engineer who traveled to Japanese-ruled Taiwan in 1910 to build a complex irrigation system in the barren southwest. Hatta manages to overcome the initial doubts of local farmers, but a tragic tunnel accident eventually halts the project and shakes his confidence.
The film follows the meandering misadventures of an aimless medical school graduate who has never kept a job and wanders from the bed of one girl to another. He becomes caught between his flight attendant girlfriend who is often away and a high school girl who claims to be a lesbian. A mixture of fast living and brooding melancholy, Fluffy Rhapsody is an engaging, photogenic essay on the current generation of seemingly thoughtless, but in fact overly introspective urban youth.
An autobiographical film based on Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's memories of his youth growing up in Taiwan after emigrating from mainland China.
Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager and a sensitive young local who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle.
Over the course of a few days, the paths of a group of young friends, lovers, and acquaintances in Taipei crisscross, prompting them to arrive at realizations about their lives.
Ah Zhe falls deep into drugs, losing himself in the chaos—until he meets Xiao Fei. In a world of addiction, some return. Others vanish for good.
Three young souls, with different purposes, comes to the coast and search for the meaning of their life, a journey considerably longer than any of them has taken before.
Yimin, the son of a carriage driver of Xinjiang ethnicity, is in love with Malihan. Malihan's father despises Yimin for his lowly background and forces his daughter to marry Bulate. Min then leaves town for development for 5 years and comes back as an army officer. However, Han has been forced to engage with Te. With Han defying the arrangement, Te challenges Min to a duel. Min catches the bullet meant for Te and wins him and Han's father to his side. But when war beckons, he sacrifices love to join the army. After the war, Min goes back to his hometown but everything has changed. Han and her whole family have gone without a trace. Min can only recall the past alone.
A Dutch photographer (played by David Verbeek himself – also a talented photographer in real life) takes a picture of a girl in a parking lot in nighttime Taipei as she plays with her kite. The photo transports us into her life. She is eight years old and is about to lose her best friend, a boy from a wealthy family who is moving to America. Back in the Netherlands, the photographer is confronted with his own constant loneliness. The photo of the girl evokes memories of his own childhood, when he still felt at home somewhere.
Set in the island Kinmen, often seen as the most dangerous military base because it’s geographically close to China, "Paradise in Service" follows the adventure of a boy who serves his military service in Unit 831 from 1969 to 1972, in preparation for a war that could erupt anytime. Through an unlucky lottery draw result, Pao, a twenty-something young man from Southern Taiwan has to serve the military in the remote and perilous Kinmen. Moreover, he is assigned to the Sea Dragon (ARB), a unit noted for the toughest physical training. It never occurs to Pao, however, that the greatest challenge in his military service lies not in the Sea Dragon but in Unit 831, a special task he is later appointed to… In this peculiar assignment, Pao vows to keep his virginity against all odds.
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-in-law is in a coma, his wife suffers a spiritual crisis when she finds her life a blank and his business partners make bad decisions.
Taipei 24H divides 24 hours in Taipei into 8 shorts. It opens with Cheng Fen-fen's upbeat and comedic "Share the Morning", and ends with Lee Kang-sheng running the final leg of this relay with "Remembrance" at 4am. Well-known director Tsai Ming-liang makes a rare appearance visiting a late night coffee shop. Taipei 24H is a contemporary urban chronicle of a city rarely at sleep.