TAIWAN BLACK MOVIES 台灣黑電影 (Taiwan, 2005)
Directed by: Hou Chi-jan
Starring: it’s a documentary!

Hou Chi-jan always loved movies, but was shocked into full on cinephilia when his mother took him to see The Color Purple. Hou devoted his life to film, seeing movies whenever he could (usually at the infamous MTV/U2 rooms in Taiwan) and eventually going to film school where he made “Stardust 15749001” and won the Grand Prize at the Taipei International Film Festival. Even after the accolades and awards Hou found himself taking a job at the Taipei Film Archives doing data entry. There he discovered a stack of old video tapes in the archive and became curious. This film, and the entire Taiwan Pulp! Series, was born out of this curiosity.

Hou had discovered Taiwanese Black Movies, the social realist exploitation genre films that had taken Taiwan by storm from 1979 to 1983 and where so awesome that the Taiwanese government shut them down and showed them to filmmakers as examples of what not to do. This gave birth to Taiwanese art house. Yawn. But Hou turned his discovery into this documentary after scouring the country, collectors, and old film labs for any remaining prints. The government was so in awe of the awesomeness of these films that they destroyed most of the prints after their theatrical run. Hou wasn’t deterred though. He tracked down directors, critics, and actors to talk about their work making some of the grimiest, most action packed, and wicked films that Taiwan has ever produced. This documentary is a primer on this period of film, and a time capsule preserving an entire part of film history that was almost completely eradicated by government order. Playing along with some of the only remaining films in the genre, this documentary will kick off our Taiwan Pulp! Series and really isn’t to be missed.