These are our fifteen recommended feature films from the Taipei Film Festival, which takes place from June 21 until July 6, 2024 in Taipei, Taiwan.

A Boy and A Girl by Hsu Li-da – Taiwan | 2023 – 140 minutes

In a declining small town, an idle boy encounters a heartbroken girl. Trying to get away, they come up with a secret plan and set off for a one-way journey. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Abiding Nowhere by Tsai Ming-liang – Taiwan, USA | 2024 – 79 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

The 10th film in the Walker series takes place in Washington DC. Two lonely souls on separate journeys, sometimes crossing paths but never once meeting. Nothing happens between them. There is no story. Their walking journeys are like a meditative prayer of heart and soul. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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After the Snowmelt by Lo Yi-shan – Taiwan, Japan | 2024 – 110 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

After the Snowmelt is a coming-of-age tale about profound loss. Filmmaker Yi-shan’s best friends in high school, Chun and Yueh, were trapped in a Nepalese cave for 47 days. Chun died three days before Yueh’s rescue, leaving behind a last wish:“ The survivor must share their story.” To honor this wish, Yi-shan takes up the camera, accompanies Yueh to the mountains, and retraces Chun’s footsteps. Her journey gradually overlaps with Chun’s, blurring the past and present, and finally converges at the same destination. When she reaches the cave, what awaits her there? (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Beyond the Fog by Murase Daichi – Japan | 2023 – 83 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

In a quiet hamlet hidden in the remote mountains of Japan that was once lively with hikers and shops, we meet Ihika, a 12-year-old born into a family that has run an inn for generations. Her father has been living apart for a few years. Saki, Ihika’s mother who married into this family, has been managing the inn with Shige, her father-in-law. One day, Shige disappears. As the inn’s survival is threatened, a time of change is coming for Ihika’s family. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Borrowed Time by Choy Ji – China | 2023 – 95 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Ting is on the brink of marriage, but still wounded by her father’s departure 20 years earlier. Setting out in search of him and for a sense of resolution, she travels from Guangzhou to Hong Kong, moving through late-night fruit markets and piers soaked in blue light, as an impending summer typhoon grows near. Meeting a childhood friend and reconnecting over a bootleg CD, Ting delves into her family’s secrets and the emotional turmoil still sharply rooted in her life. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Brief History of a Family by Lin Jianjie – China, France, Denmark, Qatar | 2024 – 100 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

A middle-class family’s fate becomes intertwined with their only son’s enigmatic new friend in post one-child policy China, putting unspoken secrets, unmet expectations, and untended emotions under the microscope. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Cu Li Never Cries by Pham Ngoc Lan – Vietnam, Singapore, France, Philippines, Norway | 2024 – 92 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

A woman tries to cling onto dimming links to her past after inheriting a pygmy slow loris from her long-estranged husband. Meanwhile, her niece prepares for marriage as the young couple ponders their uncertain future together. The present and the complex echoes of Vietnamese history intertwine with a contemplative and poetic perspective. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Mimang by Kim Tae-yang – South Korea | 2023 – 92 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

The word“mimang”holds multiple meanings in Korean. One, being unable to make sense from ignorance. Two, being unable to forget what one wants to forget. And three, searching far and wide. In Kim Tae-yang’s Seoul-based feature debut, the camera observes in three parts the changes in time, space, and characters that align with the above-mentioned definitions. Shot in Seoul over the course of four years, the film vividly captures changes to the characters and the city — specifically the historical area of Jongno — during a couple’s strolls up and down memory lanes. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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My Sunshine by Okuyama Hiroshi – Japan | 2024 – 90 minutes | Asian Premiere

On a Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real interest lies in Sakura, a figure skating rising star from Tokyo, for whom he starts to develop a genuine fascination. Coach and former champion Arakawa spots potential in Takuya, and decides to mentor him to form a duo with Sakura for an upcoming competition. As winter persists, feelings grow, and the two children form a harmonious bond. But even the first snow eventually melts away. (TaipeiFF 2024)

Oasis of Now by Chia Chee Sum – Malaysia, Singapore, France | 2023 – 90 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

In an old apartment complex in Kuala Lumpur, we see lives in unseen corners. The stairwell of a nearabandoned floor of this apartment is one of these corners, where a woman and her daughter take refuge for their secret meetings. They meet at the top of this stairwell, play games and attempt to interact in this stolen time and place they share. Later, they’ll have to return separately to their own homes in the same apartment complex. But nothing is quite what it seems. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Only the River Flows by Wei Shujun – China | 2023 – 102 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

1990s, Banpo Town, rural China. A woman’s body is found by the river. Ma Zhe, Chief of the Criminal Police, heads up the murder investigation that leads to an obvious arrest. His superiors hurry to congratulate him, but several clues push Ma Zhe to delve deeper into the hidden behavior of his fellow citizens. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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September 1923 by Mori Tatsuya – Japan | 2023 – 137 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

On September 1st, 1923, an extreme quake strikes Japan’s Kanto region, destroying property and killing many innocent lives. With martial law imposed following the disaster, false rumors about Koreans looting and preparing to initiate a riot begin to spread rapidly to towns and villages in the region, eventually reaching Fukuda Village. A local newspaper scrambles to verify the rumors but cannot clarify the truth.

Taking advantage of the turmoil, the Kameido police station secretly starts suppressing socialists. And on September 6th, the piling coincidences, anxiety, and fear spark a tragic incident that would later be buried in history. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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The Cats of Gokogu Shrine by Soda Kazuhiro – Japan, USA | 2024 – 119 minutes | Taiwan Premiere

Gokogu is a small, ancient Shinto shrine in Ushimado, Japan, on the Seto Inland Sea. Home to dozens of street cats, it is also known as “Cat Shrine”. Many people visit the shrine for various reasons— worship gods, gardening, or to play after school. Others visit Gokogu to see and feed the freely roaming stray cats or to take pictures of them. It is a haven for cat lovers, but some residents complain about the waste the cats leave around the neighborhood. Gokogu looks peaceful on the surface, but it is also the epicenter of a sensitive issue that divides the local community. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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Trouble Girl by Chin Chia-hua – Taiwan | 2023 – 103 minutes

Xiao Xiao is a girl who lives in her own world. She is isolated and bullied by her classmates at school. Even her own mother sees her as a troublemaker. Her father, who has worked abroad for a long time, is like a familiar yet distant stranger. Only her teacher, Paul, seems to understand her. One day, during a typhoon, Xiao Xiao witnesses a secret between her mother and Paul. Confused, she must force herself to adapt to this complicated emotional relationship, but she also gradually discovers that both she and her mother have unspeakable frustrations towards life. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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XiXi by Wu Fan – Taiwan, South Korea, Philippines | 2024 – 100 minutes | Asian Premiere

A friendship between two women that originated from their search for freedom leads to a transgenerational healing journey of resilience and self-reinvention. (TaipeiFF 2024)

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For more information, please visit: https://www.taipeiff.taipei/en/