Taipei Cultural Center in New York

The Detroit Institute of Arts, Ann Arbor District Library, Michigan Taiwanese American Organization, University of Scranton Asian Studies Program and Taipei Cultural Center are proud to co-presented Yung Shing Le Shadow Puppet Theatre Troupe of Taiwan.

With an emphasis on preserving the traditional art form, this century-old family theater has handed down traditional practices and stories through five generations, while also infusing modern techniques and original stories to keep this art form relevant to modern audiences.

The troupe invites you to experience Taiwanese shadow puppetry in three plays: The Sandbag Trilogy (a comedic series of entanglements with a seemingly mischievous sandbag) The Mountain of Flames (an excerpt from the classic 16th Century Chinese novel Journey to the West) and Momotaro (a traditional Japanese folktale).  Guests will then be invited backstage to get a hands-on experience with the beautifully handcrafted puppets. Narration in Taiwanese with live music.   Recommended for all ages.

Dates and venues

Nov. 10 @ 2 p.m. – Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit Film Theatre, 5200 Woodward Ave., Detroit, Michigan

Nov. 11 @ 2 p.m. —Macomb Center for Performing Arts, 44575 Garfield Rd, Clinton Twp., MI 48038

Nov. 12 @ 7 p.m. Ann Arbor District Library, Downtown Library, 343 South Fifth Street, Ann Arbor, MI

Nov. 13 @ 7 p.m. — Oakland Community College / Orchard Ridge campus, 27055 Orchard Lake Rd., Farmington Hills, MI 48334

Nov. 15 @ 7p.m. — The University of Scranton, the DeNaples Center, Mcllenny Ballroom, 600 Linden Street, Scranton, Pennsylvania

The multi-award-winning melodrama DEAR EX, co-directed by acclaimed TV script writer Mag Hsu and emerging director Hsu Chih-yen, will kick off the 22th Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, which runs from Nov 8 to Nov 16, 2018. It will be the first time Reel Asian opens the festival with a Taiwanese feature film. Co-director Mag Hsu and the lead actor Roy Chiu will be coming to Toronto for the opening night red carpet and the Canadian Premiere of this film. 

As one of the finest films from Taiwan this year, DEAR EX follows three people who are linked by fate because of love and family. Young teen Song Chengxi loses his father to cancer, but instead of having time to mourn, he finds himself caught in a feud between his widowed mother and his father’s gay lover Jay (Roy Chiu). This film not only won four major awards at the Taipei Film Festival but was recently nominated for eight Golden Horse Awards, which honors the best in Chinese-language cinema. 

This year’s Taiwanese feature presentations also include Chuang Ching-sen’s gripping thriller HIGH FLASH, featuring the mysterious death of a fisherman Ah-Hai, who is found dead of self-immolation during a protest, puzzles the truth-seeking public prosecutor; Chiang Chung-chieh’s short SHIBA SAN AND MEOW CHAN, chronicles an journey leading the older Shiba san and the young Meow Chan to confront their emptiness inside as they both have something on their minds.

The Taiwanese feature presentations are presented in collaboration with the Taipei Cultural Center in New York, with support from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto. For the full lineup and schedule, please visit reelasian.com.

About Reel Asian

The Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival (Reel Asian), presented by National Bank, is a unique showcase of contemporary Asian cinema and work from the Asian diaspora. As Canada’s largest pan-Asian film festival, Reel Asian provides a public forum for Asian media artists and their work, and fuels the growing appreciation for Asian cinema in Canada.  

Screening schedule

Dear Ex

Thursday, November 8, 7:30 pm

Isabel Bader Theatre (93 Charles St W, Toronto, ON M5S 2C7)

Dir. Mag Hsu, Hsu Chih-yen / 2018 / 100 min / Mandarin with English Subtitles

*With co-director Mag Hsu and lead actor Roy Chiu in person!

High Flash

Monday, November 12, 8:15 pm

Tiff Bell Lightbox, Cinema 4 (350 King St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3X5)

Dir. Chuang Ching-sen / 2018 / 109 min / Mandarin with English subtitles

Shiba San and Meow Chan

Tuesday, November 13, 10:30 am   

Bachir / Yerex Presentation Space (401 Richmond St W, Toronto, ON M5V 3A8)

Dir. Chiang Chung-chieh / 2018 / 30 min / Taiwanese with English Subtitles

Thursday, November 1, 7:00pm
Asia Art Archive in America
43 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Space is limited and registration is required.
Tickets Available Here

Join us for a screening of Chia-Wei Hsu’s Huai Mo Village (2012, single-channel video, 8’20”), and Ruins of the Intelligence Bureau (2015, single-channel video, 13’30”), followed by a conversation with the artist moderated by curator and critic Christopher Phillips. Their discussion will touch on the artist’s exploration of filmmaking as a performance art and Taiwan’s complex relationship with other countries in the region.

Huai Mo Village takes place in an orphanage in Chiang Rai, Thailand and tells the true story of a troop of Chinese Nationalist soldiers who retreated to the border regions between Thailand and Myanmar at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1950. In this film, the founder of the orphanage, who is a pastor and former intelligence officer, recalls the plight of these homeless, stateless soldiers who remained in Thailand rather than return to China or join the Nationalists in Taiwan

The pastor appears again in a second film, Ruins of the Intelligence Bureau, to expand on the story he began in Huai Mo Village. Set in the remains of the demolished Intelligence Bureau, this film features a performance of a traditional Thai puppet show. Narrating the performance is the pastor, who recalls personal memories and recounts the legend of Hanuman—a monkey general who leads his troop to battle and helps a prince return to the kingdom from which he was exiled.

_____________________________________________

HSU Chia-Wei (b. 1983, lives and works in Taipei) is interested in the untold histories of the Cold War in Asia. His work often takes the form of films and installations, weave together reality and myth, the past and the present. Hsu’s work has been presented in many museums, including Van Abbemuseum, the Centre Pompidou, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, and Reina Sofia National Museum. A Hugo Boss Asia Art Award finalist in 2012 and the Grand Prize winner of the 2017 Taishin Arts Award—a major accolade for artists in Taiwan, Hsu has also been included in many biennials and festivals, such as the 39th International Film Festival Rotterdam, the 2012 Liverpool Biennial, the 2018 Sydney Biennial and Gwungju Biennial. He will also participate in the upcoming Shanghai Biennale.

Christopher Phillips is an independent curator and critic. From 2000 to 2016 he worked as a curator at the International Center of Photography (ICP) in New York. He has organized many exhibitions that explore modernist photography of the early 20th century as well as contemporary Asian photography and media art, including ”Heavy Light: Recent Photography and Video from Japan” (with Noriko Fuku, 2008); “Wang Qingsong: When Worlds Collide” (2011); “Han Youngsoo: Photographs of Seoul 1956-63” (2016); and “Life and Dreams: Contemporary Chinese Photography” (2018). His books include Photography in the Modern Era: European Documents and Critical Writings, 1913-1940 (1989), Between Past and Future: New Photography and Video from China (with Wu Hung, 2004), and Life and Dreams: Contemporary Chinese Photography and Media Art (with Wu Hung, 2018). He teaches in the Photography and Imaging Department at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.