By Isabella Tianzi Cai
Yi Yi (dir. Edward Yang)
The Taiwanese film magazine Fun Screen called on 68 filmmakers, film scholars, film critics, as well as other related film personnel to vote for the 10 best Taiwanese pictures produced in the years between 2000 and 2009. They were inspired by a similar poll conducted by dGenerate Films earlier this year concerning the 10 best Chinese-language films also made in the past decade.
The result of Fun Screen’s poll came close to ours: Yi Yi, which ranked no. 4 in dGenerate Films’ top-10 list, clinched the no. 1 position in Fun Screen’s top-10 list; and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, which ranked no. 9 in our list, came second there. These films were first and second among Taiwanese films in the dGenerate poll.
The introduction of the poll acknowledged the results of the dGenerate poll in inspiring the poll of Taiwanese films: “At Fun Screen, we do not wish to challenge the list, but the list has made us acutely aware of the fact that Taiwanese films still lack a great deal of international recognition.”
As noted by Lin Wenqi, the chief editor of Fun Screen, “the goal of their poll is not about which film ranks higher than another, but is part of an effort to recognize and celebrate local film talent over the past decade. Fun Screen also just recently published 28 special reports with famous Taiwanese film directors over the past 10 years in a book called The Voices from Taiwanese Films.
The results of the Fun Screen poll can be found after the break.
1. Yi Yi (Edward Yang) 2. Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (Ang Lee) 3. Lust, Caution (Ang Lee) 4. What Time is it There? (Tsai Ming-liang) 5. Cafe Lumiere (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 6. Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 7. No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Leon Dai) 8. Blue Gate Crossing (Yee Chih-yen) 9. Goodbye Dragon Inn (Tsai Ming-liang) 10. Cape No. 7 (Wei Te-sheng) 11. Orz Boys (Yang Ya-che) 12. Winds of September (Tom Lin Shu-yu) 13. The Best of Times (Chang Tso-chi) 14. I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang) 15. Flight of the Red Balloon (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 16. The Wayward Cloud (Tsai Ming-liang) 17. Millennium Mambo (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 18. Parking (Chung Mong-hong) 19. Face (Tsai Ming-liang) 20. Let the Wind Carry Me (Chiang Hsiu-chiung, Kwan Pun-leung)
Special thanks to Brian Hu for forwarding the article and list.