Taiwanese Masterpiece A Sun Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight All Year (Column)
Taiwanese Masterpiece A Sun Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight All Year (Column)
Film critic Peter Debruge s favorite film of 2020 has been widely available on Netflix since last January. Director Chung Mong-hong explains what the film says about his home country, and why this family drama is too universal to be overlooked.
Peter Debruge, provided by
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Last February, just before the pandemic upended virtually everything about how the film industry operates, “Parasite” made history at the Academy Awards. The ingenious South Korean thriller became the first international film to “overcome the 1-inch-tall barrier of subtitles” and win best picture, as director Bong Joon Ho phrased it at the podium.
January 7, 2021
2020 was not so much a year that changed cinema, but the way we experience it––at least in the United States. The countries that contained COVID have largely reopened to box office success. The proof is in the numbers as the global box office champion of the year was the Chinese war epic
The Eight Hundred, not a film from a major US-based studio. Instead, high-profile event films like a new Pixar animation or a major superhero movie became “must-stream TV,” leaving theatrical exhibitors largely high and dry. For cinephiles, most of us enjoyed Steve McQueen’s masterful
Small Axe anthology at home on Amazon Prime or the BBC, further blurring the line between prestige television and prestige cinema.
“
Thank you for the days / those endless days, those sacred days you gave me” So begins the classic 1968 single by the Kinks, and Tsai Ming-Liang has an apposite poster tagline here if he needs it. But altering any one element of this immaculate comeback feature––say, putting this very track against the closing credits––would be heresy, especially when it already contains a beautiful use of diegetic music in the theme from Chaplin’s
Limelight. I was lucky enough to see his tender, spellbinding new film at BFI London’s in-person, distanced screenings, and strongly hope others are afforded that pleasure when things open again in 2021––when it will most certainly appear on TFS’s list for the second year running. –
2020 has been quite an interesting and rollercoaster ride of a year, leaving many of us to be stuck at home. Luckily enough, there’s been plenty of great dramas from China and Taiwan this year to keep us entertained, along with a new batch of hot rising actors to bless our screens. In previous years, we featured popular hot actors like: Li Xian, Wang Yibo, and Xu Kai, just to name of few. We’re back again with our list of the hottest rising actors of 2020 and it’s the biggest list to date with many standout stars. Check them out below!