TPNWCP: The Authorship of CHEN Yu-hsun and His Films

Ru-Shou Robert Chen (National Chengchi University)

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Abstract

Director CHEN Yu-hsun used to say that his generation of filmmakers grew up under the shadow of previous masters such as Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, and, because of exactly the same reason, that he felt ashamed of not living up to their expectation. That’s why he quitted filmmaking after box office disappointments of his first two films, Tropical Fish (1994) and Love Go Go (1997), and switched to make commercials for more than a decade.

However, his come-back work, Zone Pro Site (2013), a comedy about traditional Taiwanese “ban-doh” (moveable feast) culture and father-daughter relationship, won him both popularity and box office. Its success encouraged Chen to keep on producing The Village of No Return (2017) and My Missing Valentine (2020). My Missing Valentine took away five Golden Horse Awards, including Best Film and Best Director Awards, therefore giving Chen his long-deserved honor as an auteur in Taiwan cinema.

In this talk, I would like to address Chen’s authorship by discussing three recurring themes in his films (five features and two shorts): time, place, and memory.

Filmography of CHEN Yu-hsun

Tropical Fish, 1994

Love Go Go, 1997

Another Juliet (short film), 2010

Hippocamp Hair Salon (short film), 2011

Zone Pro Site, 2013

The Village of No Return, 2017

My Missing Valentine, 2020

Speaker's Bio

Ru-Shou Robert Chen is a professor at the Department of Radio-TV, National Chengchi University, Taiwan. His study fields include Taiwan cinema, film theory, popular culture, and Walter Benjamin.

Organiser: Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: bc18@soas.ac.uk