Films by Huang Yu-shan

 
 
 

Yushan Huang (on the left)

KAOHSIUNG FILM ARCHIVE
Huang Yu-shan was born in Penghu and grew up in Kaohsiung. In 1988, she began to direct films advocating feminism with females as leading roles and feminist issues as material. She is now an assistant professor in the Institute of Sound and Image Studies, Tainan National University of the Arts. Her research fields are motion picture editing and directing, independent film production, feminist films, documentaries and film criticism.
http://w4.kcg.gov.tw/~kmfa1/templates/en/sonthern/south.htm#015
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Autumn Tempest (or: Cave of Desire)


Autumn Tempest (or: Cave of Desire)


Autumn Tempest (or: Cave of Desire)
 
 


Poster for Twin Bracelets


The two girls are attached to each other in Twin Bracelets
The one succumbs to convention and a rough marriage; 
the other is opting for suicide as her way of revolt.
 
 


The Strait Story


The Strait Story
 
 


Ye-Ye (South Night)


Ye Ye (South Night)

Huang Yu-shan, the director of "Ye ye" (South Night), 
with 3 actors starring in this movie
 
 
 


 

 


Autumn Tempest -  1987 (1988)  (feature film) - Alternative title: Cave of Desire, color, 87 min.
Backup copy (English / Chinese)

http://cmpctw.pixnet.net/blog/31

(backup copy)
 
 
 


Peony Birds (feature film) - 1990, color, 35mm, 105 min. (starring Vivian Chen etc.)
http://yushan133.pixnet.net/blog/post/26423334
Different sources,backup copy

“Like Edward Yang, Wan Jen or Tseng Chuanghsiang, a number of people active in the film industry studied or lived in the USA. This is particularly true of women – such as the powerful critic Peggy Chiao, Wang Shau-di, the feminist director Huang Yu-shan  (The Peony Birds / Mu dan niao, 1990) [her name is spelled Huang Yu-chang in  E.L. Davis’ encyclopedia]; or the independent filmmaker Chen Jo-Fei.”
Edward Lawrence Davis (ed.), Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture, Abingdon, Oxon., UK (Routledge) 2005, p.149
 
 

Twin Bracelets (feature film) - (1990) 1991, color, 103 min. / 100min. / 99 min. [another version?] (starring Vivian Chen, Winnie Lau etc.)
http://yushan133.pixnet.net/blog/post/26423270
Other sources backup copy 1, backup copy 2

"A young woman in an oppressive Chinese fishing village seeks love and escape in the arms of her childhood girlfriend against a backdrop of customs and mores that treat women as property with no human rights.
In a remote fishing village, two girls, best friends, struggle to remain committed to their declaration of love in their tradition-bound society. A moving, ultimately tragic film, Twin Bracelets is remarkable for its portrayal of an independent woman's commitment to her love. 
Yushan Huang, the director of Twin Bracelets, is perhaps one of the most under rated directors in Chinese cinema. In festival screenings worldwide, Twin Bracelets was an audience favorite."
http://www.chinesetapes.com/movie_chinese/twin_bracelets.html

Andrew Gossman, "Better Beauty Through Technology: Chinese Transnational Feminism and the Cinema of Suffering", in: Bright Lights Film Journal, Issue 35, Jan. 2002
http://www.brightlightsfilm.com/35/chinesefeminism1.php

Gossman - (backup copy)

“[…] Other films displace lesbianism as a contemporary issue onto characters abused by patriarchal excess  in the past, 
for example, Wang Jin's Women Flowers (1994), Jacob Cheung's Intimates (1997), and Huang Yu-shan's Twin Bracelets (1992).”
[From Tian'anmen to Times Square: Transnational China and the Chinese Diaspora on Global Screens, 1989-1997,
by Gina Marchetti - 2006. 302 pages]
 
 

The Petrel Returns (Documentary) - 1997, 16mm, 63 min.
http://yushan133.pixnet.net/blog/post/26426716
BACKUP COPY (pdf) - Chinese text
 
 

Spring Cactus (feature film) - 1998 [1999], color, 35mm, 105 min.
http://yushan133.pixnet.net/blog/post/26421431
Other sources: backup copy 1, backup 2
 
 


Lai Shen-chon, The Strait Story [2005] (Chinese text)
 

The Strait Story (feature film) - 2005, color, 35mm, 105min.
http://movie.mtime.com/49095/

The year is 1943 and Taiwan is under Japanese rule as a colony. After finishing his studies in Japan, the famous Taiwanese sculptor and painter Ching-Cheng Huang receives an offer to teach at the Beijing Art School. He decides to visit friends and his family back home before leaving for China. While returning  on board the passenger liner "Takachiho Maru" with his girlfriend, the luxurious liner is torpedoed by an American submarine and sinks off the coast of Keelung, Taiwan. Decades later, Shou-shou, a fine art restorer with a crippling illness, finds one of Huang's paintings in an exhibition. As she restores the painting, Shou-shou learns about the artist, the stories behind his work and his death at sea. She recreates the story of the painting "Woman in Black", and romantically imagines the ways the artist painted his girlfriend. Restoring Huang's painting becomes Shou-shou's way of restoring herself.
( http://films-for-africa.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=7&Itemid=38 )
 

The Strait Story / alternative title:
Portrait of Restoring Light
 
 


The Song of Chatian Mountain (feature film), 2007, color, 107 min.
winelands.film.festival.archives:
the.song.of.chatian.mountain
See also backup copy 1, backup copy 2, backup copy 3
 
 
 
 

The Forgotten: Reflections on Eastern Pond
(documentary) - 2008
http://yushan133.pixnet.net/blog/post/26427697
Other sources (backup copy)

The Forgotten: Reflections on Eastern Pond 
      This documentary intends to explore the historical incident of the "Takachiho Maru " shipwreck in 1943. This film presents the facts and feelings in order to get at the truth and reveal a part of history which has been buried for so many years. Survivors of the ship have been interviewed, and history recreated in the form of  a docudrama. Also presented:  the story of Mr. Huang Ching-cheng, renowned Taiwan sculptor, who died on the ship at the age of 31. Aspects of documents and reconstructed scenes are also included. 
 


South Night (feature film) -  2008, color, 80 min
Different sources: backup copy 1, backup 2, backup 3
| Synopsis |
A woman from a foreign place buries her secrets in
smoke and shadows. A girl trussed by routine has
trouble seeing herself. A bored man is trying his best
to keep himself going.
One night, she walks into their view. One night, she
searches and he sings. One night, among these three
lonely souls – one wanting to leaving, one having just
left, and one to whom leaving does not matter – they
see each other in the haze of the city’s bright lights 
and maybe, just maybe, they even see themselves.
 
 

Filming Taiwan Alternatively
A Study of the Boundaries Blurred by the Cinematic Representation
in "Floating Islands"
 

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