3 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE However, the rise of television and increased censorship affected the demand and supply for Taiwanese-language films, which ultimately contributed to the decline of taiyupian in the 1970s. Taiwan’s cinematic landscape subsequently became dominated by the Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC), a state-sponsored studio. CMPC’s new president, Kung Hong, proposed a production style called healthy realism that, while adopting the filmmaking style of Western realistic films, projected an idealized vision of Taiwanese society that aligned with KMT’s national identity narrative and avoided exposing its underlying fractures (Hong, 2011). These films were initially well received but eventually faced rejection from audiences due to their repetitive thematic nature and adherence to conventions (Chiang, 2014). New Wave cinema, 1982–2000 The Taiwanese New Wave marks a departure from healthy realism’s conventional narratives and aesthetics. This shift also reflects a broader cultural transformation; traditional values and folklore-based storytelling receded in favor of contemporary social critique. The movement began with a four-part anthology, In Our Time (directed by Te-chen Tao et al., 1982), marking the beginning of analyzing real social phenomena in film and caring about realities of everyday life as well as restoration of a common Taiwanese identity. The best example of the conflict between Old Cinema and New Cinema was the three-segment anthology The Sandwich Man (1983), directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsang Jong-cheung, and Wan Jen. The film was initially condemned by conservative critics for its negative depiction of Taiwan and satirical critique of its obsession with the US. Namely, in the third vignette, The Taste of Apples, a poor laborer’s life briefly changes when he is hit by an American colonel’s car and taken to the affluent US Naval Hospital in Taipei City. Eager to preserve diplomatic relations amid the Cold War, the US embassy provides for the man’s medical treatment and showers his family with gifts, including apples—a rare, imported delicacy. After an initial screening to the press, an anonymous complaint was filed with the CMPC. As a result, the studio ordered changes to “dialogue, tone, behaviour, and the outdoor location shots in relation to images of poverty in the capital city” (Wang, 2013). Even the final scene, where the family eats apples for the first time, was removed, leading to the event being referred to as “the apple peeling incident.” The attempt at censorship inspired significant public outcry after a journalist exposed the affair. The film was eventually fully restored. According to I-Fen Wu (2006), “the success that Sandwich Man achieved at the box office loosened the strict censorship policies, gradually allowing the CMPC to be more flexible, more supportive of new directors and their individual styles.” The phenomenon also emboldened filmmakers and cultural workers who came together in 1986 and drafted the “Taiwan Film Manifesto of the 76th Year of the Republic of China” (Emerson, 2019). The manifesto mainly scrutinized the government’s encouragement of political propaganda in filmmaking and condemned Taiwanese critics for promoting the idea that Taiwanese films should be similar to those from Hong Kong and Hollywood, both foreign markets that saw great box office success in Taiwan. With the lifting of martial law in 1987, New Cinema directors and screenwriters were further spurred to explore taboo subjects and revisit Taiwan’s painful past (Ren, 2024). In 1989, Hou Hsiao-Hsien won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival with A City of Sadness (1989), a film about the 228 Incident and the surrounding civil unrest. Similarly, Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day (1991) received international acclaim with its depiction of the White Terror and a real homicide case. Both films, and many others from this period, exemplify a narrative style that forgoes melodrama and sensationalism in favor of a more subdued exploration of characters and overarching themes. The directors utilized long takes and minimal editing to reconstruct a particular historical atmosphere and allow audiences to be fully immersed in the film’s setting. Both in intention and execution, New Cinema films diverge from the conventions established by Hong Kong and Hollywood at the time, an indication of the deliberate effort by filmmakers to differentiate their work from foreign influences (Emerson, 2019). From this point on, Taiwanese cinema achieved full artistic freedom in its choice of subjects and both thematically and officially broke free from ideological constraints. Modern Taiwanese cinema, 2000–present In recent years, Taiwanese producers and directors have been working to diversify the film industry by adhering to genre conventions (Pan, 2023). Between 2017 and 2021, comedy, mystery/thriller, family, and romance genres dominated domestic film production in Taiwan, collectively accounting for 70% of all films produced during that period, according to the Taiwan Creative Content Agency (2023). Though horror films comprised, on average, less than 5% of annual domestic film production during the same pe-
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