Blue Gate Crossing (藍色大門) & Taipei’s Bohemians (台北波西米亞)

Blue Gate Crossing (藍色大門) & Taipei’s Bohemians (台北波西米亞)

Sunday, April 15, 2007 - 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Auditorium (Room 101), Henry R. Luce Hall See map
34 Hillhouse Avenue
New Haven, CT 6511

Free and open to the public. All films will be screened in DVD format in Chinese with English subtitles.

Blue Gate Crossing (藍色大門)
Directed by Yee Chin-yen (易智言), 2002, 85 minutes

The setting of this film is modern-day Taiwan, the subjects, two girls and a boy attending the same high school. Popular Yuezhen has the hots for Shihao, the cute, spiky-haired star of the boy’s swimming team. Too shy to speak with Shihao, Yuezhen gets her best friend, tomboyish Meng Kerou, to act as a go-between. This is when things get messy. The boy develops a crush on the tomboy and the tomboy discovers she has lesbian feelings for her pretty best friend. From here on, Blue Gate Crossing charts the deepening friendship between Shihao and Kerou, a dynamic complicated by the girl’s suspicion the she’s a lesbian. [2002 “Director Bi-Week” in “Cannes Film Festival” (France); 2002 “Competition Film” in “Tokyo International Film Festival” (Japan); 2002 “Asia-Pacific Film Festival”; 2002 “Toronto International Film Festival” (Canada); 2002 “Seattle International Film Festival”; 2002 “Vancouver International Film Festival” (Canada)]

Taipei’s Bohemians (台北波西米亞) , 2006, 55 minutes

Passion. The very word evokes images of dedication, sacrifice, and love. Taipei’s Bohemians tells the story of people who share a passion for the theater. The theater is the tie that binds these disparate figures together. When the stage calls, they immediately drop what they are doing and respond. The fact that the pay the theater offers is so very meager does not prevent these unconventional city dwellers from holding themselves to the most exacting artistic standards. The seven main characters in this film are directors, actors, designers, or administrators, and at times play several of these roles simultaneously. Not the sort of people who normally attract media attention, they are more representative of what the theater truly stands for in the realm of the arts. Enjoy a glimpse into a unique part of Taiwan’s society and culture in Taipei’s Bohemians.

This film was provided as part of the “Window on Taiwan” documentary series from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in New York.

20:30:40
Directed by Sylvia Chang (Zhang Aijia), 2004, 113 minutes

It’s not quite as salacious as Sex and the City, but Sylvia Chang’s intergenerational film 20:30:40 is an equally entertaining view of contemporary women and their complicated lives. Set in Taiwan, the title’s three numbers represent the ages of the main characters. As they search for happiness and fulfillment, the three stories interweave through one another with humor, sadness, and self-discovery. A strong cast delivers excellent performances in this touching, beautifully shot film about the search for identity, companionship and belonging. This film appeared at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival and received a Golden Bear nomination.

Special thanks to the Council for Cultural Affairs, Taiwan for their support of this program.

This film series is part of the special events planned around the upcoming international conference TAIWAN AND ITS CONTEXTS.

For More Information

Co-sponsored by the Council on East Asian Studies at Yale University, the Yale Taiwan Student Association, and the Taipei Economic and Trade Office in New York
Region: 
China, Hong Kong, Taiwan