The key works of the Taiwanese New Waves, from 1980 to 2000. Films by Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Ang Lee, Sylvia Chang and Wang Shaudi.

(Re)seeing the New Waves of Taiwanese cinemaThe New Waves in Taiwan have been blowing a wind of freedom into the streets since the early 1980s. As the democracy movement rumbled on the island, which had been under martial law for forty years, the national studio, CMPC, in crisis, tried to revive the interest of an audience weary of genre films (romance, propaganda, martial arts), and gave a chance to young filmmakers who were soon both celebrated on the island and rewarded abroad.But which New Waves are we talking about? The names of Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang and Tsai Ming-liang have become established, while Ang Lee, who made his career in the United States, is considered an outsider. There were two periods in this movement, and the legacy is still with us. In 1982 and 1983, the two collective films In Our Time and L'Homme-sandwich (The Sandwich Man) were unexpectedly successful with the public, and established this young generation in search of realism - the same year, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Green Grass of Home began the transition. Ten years later, with martial law lifted, the CMPC relaunched a competition from which Ang Lee and Tsai Ming-liang emerged.A constellation of people made the emergence of this new cinema possible: young screenwriters, Hsiao Yeh, Wu Nien-jen, as well as author Chu Tien-wen, who collaborated with Hou Hsiao-hsien on Les Garçons de Fengkuei; film critics were essential to the defense and promotion of these films, such as Yang Shi-chi, who opposed the censorship of L'Homme-sandwich, and Peggy Chiao, tireless ambassador, then producer; star Sylvia Chang gave Edward Yang the chance to direct, and starred in his first opus as well as the final episode of In Our Time. The first wave flourished between emulation and singularity: Chang Pei-cheng's Teenage Fugitive (1984) followed a young escapee, Chen Kun-hou opted for a bittersweet chronicle in Out of the Blue (1983), and Edward Yang's Terrorizers (1986) created an aesthetic breakthrough with its gritty portrait of Taiwanese society.In the 1990s, the cinema became more incisive in its social criticism (Les Rebelles du dieu néon, Mahjong, Super Citizen Ko, Dust of Angels), more feminine with Sylvia Chang (Siao Yu), Vivian Chang (Hidden Whisper) and Wang Shaudi (Grandma and Her Ghosts). He made a foray into comedy, whether musical (The Hole), absurd (Tropical Fish), family (Salé, sucré) or LGBTIQ+ (Garçon d'honneur, Blue Gate Crossing ).At the dawn of the 2000s, Edward Yang's testamentary film Yi Yi and Hou Hsiao-Hsien's Millenium Mambo, which brought actress Shu Qi to the fore, met with critical and public success abroad, but were shunned locally, signalling the break between the New Waves and the public that had supported them. Recently, however, a new generation of Taiwanese cinephiles is eagerly rediscovering them.


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