Chung Mong-hong was working late in his office when his wife called with startling news: his feature-film debut, Parking, had been shortlisted for competition at the Cannes film festival.
'I thought the odds were slim - I was a nobody in the scene, and the copy I sent to Cannes was an uncompleted and very rough edit,' Chung recalls. Feeling 'a bit confused but surprisingly calm', he finished his work and went for a walk, as he usually does after a day's labour.
But that daily walk went on for more than two hours. 'I didn't really know how to react,' he says. 'For a director, my job is done the minute the production is finished. The rest is not important. Many first-time directors win awards. I think the consistency of one's work is what really counts.'
Parking went on to receive positive reviews at Cannes, where it was screened in the Un Certain Regard competition, and several other festivals around the world, before returning home to open last month's Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei.
Chung's film is not a commercial blockbuster, but still boasts an impressive cast of Taiwan's leading actors, including Chang Chen, Kwai Lun-mei, Leon Dai Li-ren and Jack Kao Jie.
The black comedy, which unfolds in the course of an evening in Taipei, centres on Chang's character Chen Mo. He is a nondescript everyman who stops for some cakes on his way home to celebrate Mother's Day with his wife (played by Kwai), only to find his car blocked by a double-parked vehicle.