WHEN it comes to attaining global exposure for its films, Taiwan has succeeded in making a small number of movies go a long way.
Although the territory's output has sunk way below the 200-films-per-year output of the 60s and 70s, Taiwanese movies have become a popular constituent of international film festivals around the globe. Indeed, they have become something of a favourite with festival programmers and audiences alike: the films usually screen in high-profile sections and occasionally take home major prizes.
If film festivals represent the cream of world film-making, then the Taiwanese must be doing something right.
It's a disproportionate situation, to be sure: in 1995, Taiwan made only 27 films, but was invited to 52 film festivals. This included three films at the Cannes Film Festival: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Good Men, Good Women, Hsu Hsiao-ming's Heartbreak Island and Steve Wang's The Daughter In Law. Wang's film also won the Bronze prize in the Young Cinema Competition of the Tokyo Film Festival, regarded as the most important section of the Japanese event.
Last year tells a similar story. Although Taiwan produced only around 30 films, the territory snared a surprise win at the Venice Film Festival for Tsai Ming-liang's bleak, Antonioni-esque Vive L'Amour. Wu Nien-jen's A Borrowed Life and Stan Lai's The Red Lotus Society racked up 66 appearances at festivals between them.
There's also the spectacular success of American-based Taiwanese director Ang Lee, who won top honours at the Berlin Festival in 1993 with The Wedding Banquet. It saw unprecedented success at the international box-office for a Taiwan-funded film. (Lee has since moved over to Hollywood with the English-language Sense and Sensibility, which took Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival last Monday.) On initial analysis, Taiwan's success seems obvious: its film-makers are simply making excellent films, and are being rewarded for doing so. But that's not always enough to gain international recognition. Film festivals revolve around programmers, critics, and to a certain extent, film sellers and buyers, and these people need to be introduced to a nation's films, guided through the localised content, and then cultivated. Otherwise the films never leave the home country, no matter how good.
