The series is a production of Good Image Co., which has arranged for the films to be screened in 20 countries and territories including Australia, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Macau, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Turkey.
Yeh has played a central role in the revival of public interest in locally made films, which, according to the director, had been largely ignored by local audiences since the mid-1980s. His most famous works, such as 2011’s “Night Market Hero” and the 2014 time travel comedy “Twa-tiu-tiann,” both performed well alongside Hollywood blockbusters in local theaters.
The six films in The Metro of Love have taken part or been selected to compete in a number of local and foreign film festivals, such as the Taipei Film Festival and the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea. In mid-September, the first film of the series, “When Miracle Meets Maths” by director Lin Chun-yang, will premiere in Japan at the Fukuoka International Film Festival.
The FIFF, which mostly screens films made in the Asia-Pacific region, has described the entry by Lin as a heartwarming romance. The story takes place at western Taipei’s Daqiaotou Station and centers on a man and a woman who just returned from business trips in the U.S. and Japan, respectively.
The Metro of Love series was partly subsidized by the Ministry of Culture and received additional assistance from the Taipei Film Commission under the Taipei City Government’s Department of Cultural Affairs, as well as similar organizations in New Taipei City and Taoyuan City. According to the TFC, the special municipalities worked to create friendly environments for filmmaking by helping production crews communicate with different public agencies such as police and transportation departments.
The films will help present the beauty, history and cultural vitality of Taiwan’s cities to the world, Good Image said. In its description of “When Miracle Meets Maths,” for example, the FIFF notes the director’s depiction of Daqiaotou evokes an earlier time, and that traces of the Japanese colonial period (1895-1945) can still be seen against the backdrop of modern metropolitan Taipei. (KTJ-E)
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