Taiwans stories take center stage at Jerusalem Cinematheque | The Jerusalem Post

Anyone who pops over to the Jerusalem Cinematheque later this month stands a better chance of coming away with far deeper insight into what makes Taiwanese society tick, as well as the traditions and historical backdrop to the country of around 24 million people which traces its human timeline back at least 25,000 years.

Tel Aviv-based Taipei Economic and Cultural Office Representative Ya-Ping (Abby) Lee calls the festival “a celebration of storytelling and friendship†and says she hopes “Israeli audiences enjoy these films, discover new perspectives about Taiwan, and leave the cinema feeling much closer to Taiwanese people and culture.â€

With the spread of works offered during the upcoming film week, the latter wish seems a perfectly feasible prospect.

Jerusalem Cinematheque head Roni Mahadav-Levin feels that hosting a Taiwan film event is a natural fit for his institution and sees some parallels between Taiwan and Israel, though they are not necessarily positive.

“What interests me about the Taiwanese film industry, in comparison with the Israeli industry, is that conflict is ever-present. For them it is the conflict with China and, like in contemporary Israeli cinema, it is always there, and absent and then present,†he observed. “That is something that resonates in contemporary [Taiwanese] cinema. It is frequently there in the background.â€

Mahadav-Levin singled out a couple of the items in the program he felt have political – with uppercase and lowercase “p's†– divisions in the storyline.

It was something of a slow burner that went through a prolonged gestation stage before finally getting off the ground. It eventually happened, in large part, thanks to some input from an industry A-lister.

“It was a project by director Shih-Ching Tsou that was talked about for a long time. The person who achieved the breakthrough for the film, which was in limbo, was Sean Baker,†he said. Baker is an acclaimed director, producer, editor, and writer who has four Oscars to his name, as well as a Palme D'Or at Cannes and a BAFTA.

This is Tsou's debut as a solo director, although she has shared that role before – with Baker – and taken on various slots in Baker films, such as the award-winning Take Out, as well as Starlet and Tangerine, which were all well received.

Left-Handed Girl, similar to intense multilayered family drama Crown Shyness, has prominent generation gap vignettes embedded in the plot, references and traditional beliefs set against more contemporary viewpoints amid pressing existential challenges.

The festival blurb mentions LGBTQ+ issues featured in several of the films, and it is in the script mix in Crown Shyness and Silent Sparks. The latter film is a debut outing for director Ping Chu, which fuses gangster cinema with queer romance in a finely stratified work.

“Taiwan is, today, the most advanced country in Asia with regard to LGBT rights,†Mahadav-Levin said. “It was the first Asian country to allow same-sex marriages. But there is also a generation gap. That comes through in Crown Shyness as well as in Silent Sparks.â€

That comes across as a clear sign of robust societal and political health, and the willingness of filmmakers to portray such aspects of Taiwanese society in their work is also an encouraging element of the film industry and arts community as a whole there.

Following on from my dubiousness about the depth or breadth of the information we possess about Taiwan, quite a few of us may also identify that general part of the world with the practice of martial arts. That, for folks of a certain vintage, say the over-65s, might conjure up the name of Bruce Lee.

While Lee was born in San Francisco and grew up in Hong Kong, the Hollywood superstar of the early 1970s was such a ubiquitous presence at the time in movie circles one could be forgiven for mistakenly latching onto his image in the context of Taiwan-martial arts, too. That is front and center in Kung Fu, by 47-year-old novelist-filmmaker Giddens Ko, and in A Touch of Zen.

Literature and, possibly more poignantly, community-level life are cast in a gentle spotlight in Hou Chi-jan's Poetries From the Bookstores: Somewhere I Belong. The delicately crafted film takes a loving look at a slew of independent bookstores, of numerous ilks, and how they serve as much-needed corporeal interfaces between booksellers and readers of all ages and walks of life.

There are also a couple of lectures lined up in the cinematheque program, including a talk in Hebrew by interdisciplinary expert in Asian cultures Zevik Rylski before the screening of Poetries From the Bookstores.

Maybe, considering the achievements of the likes of stellar Taiwanese multi-Oscar Award-winning director Ang Lee, one should not be too surprised by the quality of filmic material coming out of the Eastern Asian country.

Taipei representative Lee, naturally, hopes we all enjoy her country's cinematographic fare and, who knows, perhaps watching the movies may even whet the travel appetite of Israelis always on the lookout for some new vacation destination. Lee clearly does not rule that out.

“Cinema is a powerful cross-cultural bridge between people,†she declared. “Taiwan and Israel are both dynamic, innovative, and democratic societies. We look forward to strengthening the cultural and friendly ties between Taiwan and Israel through cinema.â€