Taiwan Film Projects Seek Overseas Audiences, Adaptation to Sector Challenges: ‘We Need to Think International Before We Start Shooting’

variety.com:

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Reverse engineering a previously English-language script into a bilingual, dual-location thriller is one possible route to giving Taiwanese feature films a better shot in the international marketplace.

So too, is adapting a previously successful romantic novel that could be partly filmed in the U.K. Both approaches were spelled out on Wednesday at a panel discussion at the Taiwan Creative Content Fest titled ‘Where is the silver lining for TW film?’ The session involved well-established director Nelson Yeh (“Night Market Hero”), U.S.-based director Weiko Lin and Taiwan female actor and screenwriter Herb Hsu (“Untold Herstory”).

Over the course of the session, the trio mentioned various challenges facing the Taiwanese industry. These included viewer distraction by micro-length videos, poor levels of audience support for local titles (especially art house films and those in minority languages), a lack of female film directors, as well as an over-familiarity with Hollywood content. “From childhood, Taiwanese audiences are so used to watching Disney and Hollywood films with Chinese subtitles that we don’t realize we are doing it,” said Lin. “What we need to do is take the best elements of Hollywood and add local elements to make them our own.” He cited films dual language films including “Minari,” “Past Lives,” “Everything Everywhere All at Once” and Ang Lee’s “Wedding Banquet” as benchmarks for what he is trying to achieve, while also explaining that “Crazy Rich Asian,” a film often cited as an Asian breakthrough, is still essentially a Hollywood movie.