Previously at the ICA - Films

Still: 10 + 10, Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien and 19 others, Taiwan 2011.

LFF: 10 + 10 (Shi jia shi)

17 Oct 201218 Oct 2012

Portmanteau movies popped up right across East Asia this year, and this Taiwanese anthology is one of the best. Twenty of the island’s top directors contribute five-minute vignettes on the uniqueness of their homeland. They rise to the occasion with a varied range of mini-documentaries, mini-fictions and mini-drama docs, some of them touching, many darkly amusing. Stand-outs include a jet-black sci-fi comedy about the erasure of bad memories from Chen Yu-Hsun, a surreal memory of the Chinese civil war on Kinmen Island from Chang Tso-Chi, a cautionary account of vigilante justice from Chung Mong-Hong and an exquisite reminiscence of the good old days from Hou Hsiao-Hsien. Only two women directors (Wang Shaudi and Sylvia Chang), but many of the men empathise with women’s points-of-view; there’s also space for aboriginal pride, sardonic humour, political satire and the odd spark of teenage rebellion. But no hint of nationalist bluster. (Tony Rayns)

Dir. Hou Hsiao-Hsien and 19 others, Taiwan 2011, 114min.
Cast: Shu Qi, Kuei Lun-Mei, Lin Ching-Tai.

When

E.g., 30-07-2021
E.g., 30-07-2021