Noir cinema

An insight look to the explosion of B cinema in Taiwan during the end of the 70’s and the early 80’s and how those movies made an impact in Taiwan society of that era, being a reflection of it…
Through interviews with movie directors who worked in those films, such as Chu Yen pIng, producers and stars of those films as Yang chia Yun. The director of this documentary, Ho Chi jan, illustrates this interesting cinematic journey with numerous clips of those films, exploring the genre that was a mixed of exploitation cinema with tons of violence and sexuality, where the “Femme-Avenger” Genre was born, with trash classics as “Woman Revenger”, with Elsa Yeung playing for the first time a role that she would play countless of times in many different movies, that co-existed with “social-realist crime films”, such as “Never Too Late to Repent”, considered the pioneer of the genre, starred by real-life ganster Ma Sha, and based on his own autobiographical book, or anti-communist propagandistic movies that were a rough critic to he CCP as “On the Society File of Shanghai“.
The documentary also explores the ins and outs of Taiwan movie industry of that time, and the importance of triads in the making of those films, that for some of the gangsters that put money on them, it became a perfect vehicle for their ego, to see themselves as heroes in the screen.
A really interesting retrospective to a cinema that no longer exists but hat is really cherished and beloved by some desperate moviegoers around the world, that thanks to Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, has been available for free on Vimeo this December. with some of the most representative films of the genre.

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