The Inspired Island: A Life That Sings

The film explores Lin Hai-yin’s unique perspective of having “two homelands,” narrated by her daughter Julie Chang. It highlights her life, work as an editor, and her role in overcoming censorship. Lin Hai-yin’s novels, known for their inclusiveness, remain a shared memory for cross-strait readers. She was a friend to writers and a courageous mother, nurturing Taiwanese literature post-war. As editor of the United Daily News, she supported writers like Lin Hwai-min and founded the Belles-Lettres Publishing House. Her living room was a literary hub, and she is fondly remembered as “Ms. Lin Hai-yin.” Her novel Memories of Peking: South Side Stories was published in 1960.

Wang Wen-xin, a revered novelist, is known for his deep appreciation of words and slow, deliberate writing style. He co-founded the literary magazine Modern Literature with classmates from National Taiwan University. His notable work, “Family Catastrophe,” published in 1973, was praised for its innovative language and realistic portrayal of interpersonal relationships. Another significant work, “Backed against the Sea,” took 25 years to complete and is celebrated for its modernist beauty. Wang is currently working on a new book, though its release date is unconfirmed.

The Ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuang Zhou’s dream of becoming a butterfly blurs reality and fantasy, reflecting a poet’s desire for freedom and eternity. The coming of Tulku draws from Buddhist classics, using Chou Meng-tieh’s life as a metaphor. His experiences at WuChang Street and his bookstand, started in 1959, led to enlightenment and loyalty to Buddha and loved ones. Influenced by Buddhism, his poems blend Zen with grace, affection, and prudence, capturing life’s essence with strength and delicacy. He closed his bookstand in 1980 due to illness.

River Without Banks (2014) takes poetry and war as its main theme. As homage to Death of a Stone Cell, the film is structured into ten segments; each led by the first lines of the first ten stanza of the poem. Correspondences between the poet and his friends are incorporated throughout, taking the audience back and forth between Lofu's youth and middle age, only to eventually depict a full picture of the protagonist. The camera follows Lofu on his trips back to the bomb shelter and tunnel in Kinmen and his hometown Hengyang in Hunan Province of China, while also capturing his daily life in his adopted country of Canada. Acclaimed as the "Wizard of Poetry", Lofu shares through the film of the most insightful reflections.

The writer Bai Xianyong from the youthful vigor of founding "Modern Literature" at the age of 22, to the sincerity of the people who wrote "Father and the Republic of China" and "Pain Relief and Healing" in recent years. The film borrows the form of the stream of consciousness (dream of a garden tour)-the taste of Guilin rice noodles separated more than 40 years ago, the 10-year re-visit of Suzhou gardens, the dark kingdom on the stage, and the journey of lectures and lectures. With special encounters and literary history, one person has led the trend of several generations. He is uniquely strong and courageous, exquisite and affectionate. He echoes the symphony in the film and leads the audience to gradually touch the hot novelist's mind.

Poet and author Xi Xi is one of Hong Kong's most treasured writers. Though also acclaimed in Taiwan and mainland China for seminal works like the essay Shops, her writings are firmly rooted in the spirit of Hong Kong. Leave it to Fruit Chan, another staunchly grassroots auteur, to make a documentary on Xi Xi's career. Chan sought out renowned critics and writers to discuss Xi Xi's works, starting with 1979's My City. He also juxtaposes photos of a changing Hong Kong with readings of her writings, and even playfully inserts characters from her stories into the film.

A documentary about writer and novelist Liu Yichang.

Chu Tien-Wen, frequent screenwriter for Hou Hsiao-Hsien, makes her directorial debut with this entry in The Inspired Island documentary series. With Hou as producer, cinematographer Yao Hung-I and editor Liao ChingSung, Chu takes a deep dive into the story of her parents, famed authors Chu Hsi-Ning and Liu Mu-Sha. Through family albums, old letters and interviews with fellow writers, Chu crafts a deeply personal portrait of her parents’ romance, literary careers, family roots and the unfinished opus her father left behind.

A Lean Soul examines the life and works of Taiwanese novelist Qi Deng Sheng. The filmmakers were able to have in-depth interviews with not only the writer's closest friends and relatives but also the notoriously camera-shy protagonist himself. The film vividly dramatizes many passages from his intensely autobiographical works of fiction. The result is an intimate and candid portrait of one of the most important and controversial Taiwanese writers.

A series of documentaries that aim to introduce important Chinese writers to the next generation and to preserve and promote the works of literary masters. The episode "I Remember" is directed by novelist Lin Junying, who has had a deep friendship with the Zhu family for over 40 years. The film focuses the second generation of daughters Zhu Tianwen, Zhu Tianxin, Zhu Tianyi and son-in-law Tang Nuo, who together co-founded the "Sansan Bookstore".

A documentary about a Taiwanese poet Wu Sheng.

A professional hit-man is hired to take out a target -- however, his girlfriend’s pregnancy gives him second thoughts. He decides that after this job, he will renounce his profession and turn himself in. This is the first feature film from Taiwanese director Alex Yang, who participated in script-writing and production on Edward Yang's early films. "The Trigger" has echoes of Yang's "Mahjong." The actors in the film, except for veteran Ngai Man-Yin, are all new faces -- unfortunately, Ngai's death in 2005 also made "The Trigger" his last appearance on screen.

A pioneer in Taiwan’s contemporary dance scene, Lo Man-fei receives a beautiful tribute from director En Chen, a decade after her passing. Three years in the making, Manfei traces the life and work of the dance legend, including her early days at the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre, her studies at New York’s most prestigious dance schools, and the founding of her Taipei Crossover Dance Company. Featuring rare footage of Lo’s graceful performances as well as candid conversations with her closest friends and collaborators, Manfei is a stirring journey into the heart of a true artist and a moving remembrance for a dearly missed member of the Taiwan art world.

A-Yan and Xiao-Yu are strangers, but they look just like twins. A-Yan is a country boy who comes to the big city for a better future. However, the girl whom he falls for cheats him out of the insurance payout he has got from his grandmother’s illness. Xiao-Yu who owns a talent agency betrays his business partner. As a result of an attempted kidnap, their lives are entwined with each other.

Ming-Hsang, a deaf college student, meets interesting people as he cycles around Taiwan before he graduates from college.

The story of a family embroiled in the "White Terror," the Kuomintang government's anti-communist political repression that was wrought on the Taiwanese people from 1947-1987.

A young woman urgently seeks to navigate the maze of contemporary Taipei and find a future. She hopes that her boyfriend Lung is the key to the future, but Lung is stuck in a past that combines baseball and traditional loyalty that leads him to squander his nest egg bailing her father out of financial trouble.

Lin Hsiao-yang tries to keep her family together while working as a waitress at Kentucky Fried Chicken and going to night school. With no mother and her father currently working out of town, it is up to Lin Hsiao-yang to take care of her younger siblings, who are slipping into a life of crime.

In this portrait of small-time hoods rendered in rhythm-of-life anecdotal detail, Gao is the leader of a circle of layabouts including his sidekick, Flathead, and their girlfriends, Pretzel and Ling. He is also the originator of petty crime schemes, which promise to get the gang nowhere fast.

An actress preparing to play in a historical epic is terrorized by someone faxing her pages from her stolen diary; has colorful flashbacks of her affair with a now-deceased man; and imagines black-and-white film-within-a-film scenes of the movie she is about to appear in.

Master puppeteer Li Tien-lu recalls his life in Japanese-occupied Taiwan during the first half of the 20th century.

In 1984, LIU Ruo-yu left Taiwan and went to the United States to learn how to act from Jerzy GROTOWSKI. LIU returned to Taiwan and founded U Theatre in 1988. By visiting masters from various places, they learned traditional skills such as Tai Chi, drums, stilts, Taoist rituals, etc. Through constant physical training, meditation, drumming, and martial arts, LIU established his training and performance methods. In 1998, U Theatre performed Sound Of The Ocean at the Avignon Festival in France. It is now more than 30 years since U Theatre was founded. Where will it go next?