Tavern by the Lethe

The Year of Happiness and Love

Jiang Chen-bo is a loser without prospects for success, until a surprise promotion becomes the catalyst for his entire family's upturn in fortune.

Wave Makers

Weng Wen-fang (Hsieh Ying-hsuan) came from a political family. She joined the Justice Party as the deputy director and spokesperson of the Publicity Department, after failing to be re-elected as a member of the Council. She led the publicity team in realizing their goals, but not without facing many challenges to their faith and values.

Such a life

'Such a Life' is quite a sad film. It is set in the sixties, in a village on the west coast of Taiwan, where many are succumbing to 'black foot', a disease caused by drinking contaminated well water. The only 'cure' is to amputate the afflicted limb, and to avoid drinking the contaminated water. Many in the village were already sick, and few could afford to have tap-water installed. At the center of the story is Ah Chung, who lives with his grandfather, who has already lost one leg to 'black foot'. In the same village also live an opera family, who are finding things increasingly difficult there, an oyster farmer, who complains that his oysters are being poisoned by a nearby pharmaceutical plant, and an assortment of children who enjoy swimming in the sea, and who bully Ah Chung. A significant portion of the action also takes place in the village school, where Ah Chung is having trouble keeping up with the fees.

Kidnapped

After her six year old son is kidnapped, a successful fashion designer must work with a detective to clear up the terrifying mystery and get her son back.

Full Moon in New York

Three Chinese women with vastly different backgrounds get acquainted and become friends amid the social desolation of New York.

That Day, on the Beach

Two friends who haven't seen each other for thirteen years reunite. One is a successful concert pianist just back from a European tour and the other has just started a new business.

Mahjong

Amid a rapidly changing cityscape, the lives of a disparate group of swindlers, hustlers, gangsters, and expats collide, with a naive French teenager and a sensitive young local who tries to protect her caught dangerously in the middle.

Life of Pi

The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.

Taipei Story

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.

Super Citizen Ko

At an old age, a former political prisoner is determined to find out where his fellow sufferers have laid since their secret execution, while Taiwan embarks on a tumultuous path of democratization.

In Our Time

Four vignettes, each set in different decades from the 1950s through the 1980s, deal with protagonists at different stages of life between childhood and young adulthood.

The Cabbie

After falling in love with a traffic cop, a cab driver commits as many traffic violations as he can in order to see her again.

A Way We Go

For the past forty years, Ah Long has headed up a traditional Chinese musical troupe. But times are changing, and the troupe members leaving one by one, Ah Hui, is an aimless slacker with no plans for the future. Ah Hui’s best friend is Ah Gou, a young man who works as a welder making metal gates.

Blue Moon

There is usually only one full moon every month, but occasionally there are two – and that second full moon is called the Blue Moon. It is said that when a person sees a blue moon and makes a wish, he will be granted a second chance in things.

Ming Ghost

A story of a girl haunted by the ghost of her mother, after witnessing her murder.

Betelnut Beauty

A cute coed leaves her mother's home and gets involved with a pastry chef who has links to the local criminal element.