Taiwan’s Golden Horse Film Festival To Open With Double Bill Of ‘Snow In Midsummer’ & ‘Be With Me’

Liz Shackleton
·2 min read
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This year’s Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival will open with a double bill of Snow In Midsummer, directed by Malaysia’s Chong Keat-aun, and Be With Me, from Taiwanese filmmaker Hwarng Wern-ying.

The festival observed that the two films are “coincidentally inspired by faith and narrated in historical memories of Taiwan and Malaysia” – and both are directed by previous winners at Taiwan’s prestigious Golden Horse Awards.

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Chong won Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards for The Story Of Southern Islet in 2020, while Hwarng, an acclaimed art director and long-time collaborator of Hou Hsiao-hsien, won Best Art Direction and Best Makeup & Costume Design for Flowers Of Shanghai and The Assassin, respectively.

A collaboration between Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore, Snow In Midsummer revolves around a Cantonese street opera troupe during a turbulent period in Malaysia’s political history in the late 1960s. The film is receiving its world premiere in Venice Days.

Hwarng’s directorial debut, Be With Me depicts a woman struggling with her love life, career and family who returns home to take care of her sickening father and recalls her childhood with her grandfather. Executive produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, the film stars Ariel Lin, Vic Chou, Ethan Juan and Chang Hsiao-chuan.

Both films were also 2020 Golden Horse Film Project Promotion official selections and will be receiving their Asian premieres at the festival.

Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival also announced that this year’s edition will close with Tales Of Taipei, produced by Bowie Tsang, which is an omnibus of ten stories about love by directors from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Bhutan and France.

Chong is one of the directors on the film, along with Joseph Hsu Chen-chieh, Yin Chen-hao, Wong Yee-lam, Rachid Hami, Pawo Choyning Dorji and Amy Ma.

The film’s cast includes Lee Sin-je, Karena Lam, Ethan Juan, Chen Shu-fang, Sammi Cheng, Stephy Tang, Liu Kuan-ting, Caitlin Fang and Kuo Shu-yau.

“This was not an easy project to accomplish, requiring ten times of efforts for everything. Everyone involved with the project holds an unmatched passion for cinema and for this land of ours. Being the closing film on the 60th Anniversary of Golden Horse is a supreme honor to the crew,” said Tsang.

The 2023 Golden Horse Film Festival will take place November 9-26.

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