Taiwan movies battle for top honors at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival
May 4, 2019
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Taiwan movies “Cities of Last Things” and “Long Time No Sea” are battling for top honors at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival May 2-10, according to the Ministry of Culture.
The films, which are selected in the international narrative feature competition, are part of a 200-strong lineup featuring 24 Asian and Asian American directors at this year’s festival.
“Cities of Last Things,” written and directed by Malaysia-born Ho Wi-ding, documents the significant moments of the everyman main character’s life over three decades in reverse chronological order. The 2018 social and political critique won top prize in the Toronto International Film Festival’s platform section the same year and has garnered widespread critical acclaim.
“Long Time No Sea,” written and directed by Taiwan’s Heather Tsu, focuses on the relationship between a young member of the indigenous Yami tribe on outlying Orchid, or Lanyu, Island in southeastern Taiwan’s Taitung County and a newly arrived teacher. In the heartwarming 2018 tale, which won a Taipei Golden Horse Film Work-In-Progress Project award, the pair overcome personal challenges and strike common ground in preparing for a traditional dance competition.
First staged in 1983, the festival is the biggest of its kind in Southern California dedicated to showcasing films by and about Asians and Pacific islanders.
