On Taiwanese New Film

As the important strength in Chinese national film, Taiwanese New Film has been paid close attention by the academic circles for its cultural visual angle and distinct aesthetic style since it was born. Taking a broad view of the current research of Taiwanese New Film, we may say the achievements are generous, but most of which are on the individual director or works. The research that regards Taiwanese New Film as a whole, and expatiates on its unique cultural position and aesthetic style is still insufficient. This paper attempts to review Taiwanese New Film in a whole visual angle through its representative directors and films, and clarify its unique aesthetic characteristic and cultural significance as the remarkable representative of the native culture in Taiwan.This author thinks that Taiwanese New Film can be regarded as the epitome of the modernization of the whole society. It embodies the conflicts between the traditional value and modern civilization intently from the theme. Taiwanese New Film hopes to retain the virtue in the traditional value system, and confront all sorts of impacts that modern civilization brings at the same time. It has formed an open and independent word system during the process of describing conflicts.The themes embody distinct aesthetic characteristics in the film language. Long -take cinematography and the unique way of space configuration make Taiwanese New Film take on the strong style of auteurism. Hau Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang are the most outstanding representatives. They endow the personal style to traditional film elements such as long-take cinematography and the composition of pictures, thus formed the individualized way of the expression of Taiwanese New Film.Spoken of the cultural meaning, Taiwan New Film has dual natures. It is not only a part of the whole film, but also the remarkable representative of the local culture in Taiwan. So this paper weighs Taiwanese New Film in two coordinate systems, and draws a conclusion that Taiwanese New Film exists as elite's culture in the coordinate of film culture, while it has distinct and conscientious characteristics of the local culture in the coordinate of the social culture in Taiwan .