These are thirty films you shouldn’t miss at the 57th Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, which will take place from November 5th – 22nd (2020) in Taipei, Taiwan.

About the festival:

The Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (TGHFF) is the largest film festival in Taiwan. Starting in 1980 as a non-competitive showcase, TGHFF aims at introducing prominent cinema from around the world, in order to promote cinema as an art form and to enhance intercultural understanding through cinema.

Critically acclaimed filmmakers who have visited TGHFF throughout the years include Abbas Kiarostami, Hal Hartley, Atom Egoyan, Olivier Assayas, François Ozon, Theo Angelopoulos, Krzysztof Zanussi, Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne, Nicolas Winding Refn, Cristian Mungiu, Denis Villeneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Leos Carax. Renowned Asian filmmakers such as Nagisa Oshima, Morita Yoshimitsu, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Yasmin Ahmad, Shunji Iwai, Kim Ki-duk, Lee Chang-dong, Hirokazu Koreeda, Brillante Mendoza, and Apichatpong Weerasethakul also have attended the festival.

Selected Films:

A Lean Soul examines the life and works of Taiwanese novelist Qi Deng Sheng. The filmmakers were able to have in-depth interviews with not only the writer’s closest friends and relatives but also the notoriously camera-shy protagonist himself. The film vividly dramatizes many passages from his intensely autobiographical works of fiction. The result is an intimate and candid portrait of one of the most important and controversial Taiwanese writers. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 15th, 2020 (Sunday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 12 | 16:20 pm (Q&A Session)
November 17th, 2020 (Tuesday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 13 | 15:50 pm (Q&A Session)

Trailer:

The story begins with an amputated leg. The leg’s owner is Zi-han, who passes away after the operation. His wife Yu-ying decides to find his vanished leg. During the course, she recalls how they first met, how they fell in love and how their relationship gradually shattered. Retrieving the leg is how she tries to say farewell to the man she once loved. Only after that can she begin her own journey. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 5th, 2020 (Thursday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 13 | 19:00 pm (Q&A)
November 5th, 2020 (Thursday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 14 | 19:00 pm

Trailer:

Babi tells the story of a group of secondary school students’ lives. It portrays how violence exists in a place where people gain knowledge. A real story that killed two innocent people. A story covered up by the media. A story hidden from the public. Daringly, we present the world with what happened once upon a time – a real incident with so much blood, tears and regret…. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 6th, 2020 (Friday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 13 | 19:40 pm (Q&A)
November 7th, 2020 (Saturday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 13 | 17:00 pm (Q&A)

Trailer:

Lok is a recovering schizophrenic who yearns for love. One day, he encounters the young and beautiful Yan-yan and quickly falls in love with her. Just when he hesitates over whether he should tell her about his illness, he has a relapse and becomes delusional. Little does he know that she is a counselling psychologist who has a hidden agenda. The pair develop a relationship beyond their wildest dreams. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 6th, 2020 (Friday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 19:00 pm
November 19th, 2020 (Thursday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 16:00 pm (Q&A)

Trailer:

Cleaners is a coming-of-age anthology film about high school student cleaners from a rural catholic school in 2008. These students struggle with different societal pressures of being clean, proper and pure while they discover that the world is dirty and superficial to begin with. The stories range from the taboo of pooping in school to navigating local political dynasties. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 7th, 2020 (Saturday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 17:10 pm
November 10th, 2020 (Tuesday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 22:00 pm
November 13th, 2020 (Friday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 15:00 pm

Trailer:

Kenji is the youngest member of a team in charge of creating a gigantic shopping centre. But in order to build the new complex, an old dance hall must be destroyed: every effort to tear down the building is sabotaged by a mysterious power. In fact, there is a rumour that the place is cursed, and that the construction crew had even thought about hiring exorcists, but none of them seems to be able to find the solution. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 6th, 2020 (Friday) | MUVIE TITAN | 16:50 pm
November 15th, 2020 (Sunday) | MUVIE TITAN | 12:30 pm

Trailer:

Under the pain of illness and treatment, Kang finds himself living the life of a drifter. He meets Non in a foreign land. They find consolation in each other before parting ways and carrying on with their days. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 9th, 2020 (Monday) | MUVIE TITAN | 18:30 pm (Q&A)

Trailer:

What Mei wants is a simple relationship with someone who loves her dearly. However, fate decides otherwise. After a failed marriage and an immoral affair with a married man, she gives up on life because of one setback after another. For the past decade, she has barely survived with her mentally disabled son, and her mother with dementia. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 6th, 2020 (Friday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 16:40 pm
November 8th, 2020 (Sunday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 17 | 11:30 am (Q&A)

Trailer:

For the past five years, Lin has been looking after his elderly landlady, Mrs. Chou and her grandson since it’s his way of remembering someone. When Mrs. Chou passes away, her son Li-gang returns from overseas and discovers that Mrs. Chou’s property is passed on to her grandson, who has been adopted by Lin. Li-gang accuses Lin of killing his mother. As the investigation continues, more and more evidence mounts against Lin…. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 10th, 2020 (Tuesday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 13 | 19:00 pm (Q&A)

Trailer:

Anjani lives with her husband in New Delhi. He works as a guard whose job is to stop rhesus monkeys from invading the government buildings as well as protecting the tourists. This is complicated by the fact that many Indians worship the monkeys as incarnations of the god Hanuman and feed them. Anjani is afraid of monkeys. On one particular feast day, the situation escalates, and he resorts to unusual measures. (TGHFF 2020)

Screening Dates:
November 8th, 2020 (Sunday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 15 | 16:50 pm
November 13th, 2020 (Friday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 15 | 12:40 pm
November 15th, 2020 (Sunday) | Vie Show Taipei Hsin Yi 15 | 12:40 pm

Trailer:

For more information about the festival and the programme please visit the official website here: https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/overview