Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above 看見台灣

This is the first movie entirely of footage of Taiwan from an aerial perspective. It’s coming to theaters in November.

It is very spectacular, but know the director there will also include footages of man made pollution, terrible city/environment planning and the terrible disasters that companies such incompetence.

still, looks like something I’d want to see.

Some of Chi Po-lin’s aerial photography was hanging in the office of my former job. Some really, truly great stuff.

EDIT:

Foreword by the narrator -you must have seen this guy a thousand times in a thousand ads:

How it was made -sorry- Chinese only

[quote]The feature-length aerial tribute to Taiwan’s natural beauty pulled in $373,868 in its first three days and is nominated for Best Documentary at the upcoming Taipei Golden Horse Awards.

Aerial photography documentary Beyond Beauty: Taiwan From Above has soared to $373,868 (NT$11 million) in its first three days at the Taiwanese box office, a record opening for a documentary in the territory.

The film was directed by Chi Po-lin, a former civil servant turned aerial photographer. It was produced by prominent Taiwnese director Hou Hsiao-hsien and scored by Ricky Ho, who did the soundtrack for Wei Te-sheng’s 2011 art house hit, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale, among other top Taiwanese projects.
[/quote]

Wondering has anyone seen it yet?

No but I’d like to.

Me, but normal screen, not IMAX. Full theater, took a while to find one with seats not in the front line. All showings sold out. Lots of support from the locals. Everyone watched in rapt concentration, as if it was mass, as we say in Spanish. Quiet and reverent.

I bought tickets saturday for a Sunday show… It’s popular.

It was nice, but I was hoping for just one shot somewhere in the middle where the scene wasn’t basically spinning around. Like they could have touched down the helicopter at some point and just done a still scene.

But basically, any single frame captured from the film would make a great photograph. Worth the watch if you are interested in photography or nature.

Looks great. Getting a new perspective on things is a powerful thing. It’s also a breakthrough in terms of showing Taiwan, warts and all, getting past that face crap that stops people dealing with reality.

Yes I saw it yesterday. The earlier screenings were booked out so we had to hang around until the 5:30pm session, and even then we could only get seats at the front, near the wall.

It was really good - it was great to see Taiwanese landscapes on the big screen. There was a palpable sense of interest from the audience and I like Icon’s description of the everyone watching, ‘as if it was mass’. Quite a few people clapped after the credits stopped rolling, which took me by surprise. I think more than half of the film was taken up showcasing the man-made environmental damage - the erosion caused by mountain road construction and betel nut farming, the air and water pollution, the groundwater extraction and land subsidence in the south, the concreting of coastline, the garbage, the illegal gravel and sand mining. There was even a stab at ‘pseudo-European architecture that doesn’t suit the landscape’. And how Taiwanese often ‘pretend not to see’ how dirty the environment is. But I think the tone of it was just about perfect - it was critical, honest but also sympathetic. Obviously environmental awareness is growing in Taiwan but I also think this film, and the audience’s reaction to it, is a sign that many Taiwanese are getting more confident in connecting their own identity to this island. The last scene is quite interesting - a group of aboriginals standing atop a mountain waving Taiwan’s flag, which I suppose is not something you would ever see within a Confucius Institute. :laughing:

Forgot to mention – the translator did a very good job.

I saw the film last weekend. Great photography; bombastic music, played almost at full tilt throughout. I don’t regret seeing it but I hope I never need to hear Ricky Ho’s musical score ever again.

This for me is one of the most objectionable parts of the film. Having shown incredible scenes of Taiwan’s immense beauty, and then having shot and discussed all the environmental damage and bad behavior, how to end the damn story? I know! Let’s have some aboriginals singing and dancing on the top of a mountain! It’s completely ridiculous.

The stupidity of this last scene didn’t stop some people in the audience from clapping at the end though.

Guy

Where is this playing in Taipei?

[quote=“afterspivak”]

This for me is one of the most objectionable parts of the film. Having shown incredible scenes of Taiwan’s immense beauty, and then having shot and discussed all the environmental damage and bad behavior, how to end the damn story? I know! Let’s have some aboriginals singing and dancing on the top of a mountain! It’s completely ridiculous.

The stupidity of this last scene didn’t stop some people in the audience from clapping at the end though.

Guy[/quote]

the jade mountain has sacred meaning to several aboriginal groups, and this chorus group is named after the mountain. the leader of the group has always wanted to bring the group up to sing, and the movie made it happen.

Those kids are really something. Did a piece on them several years ago. Their performances always bring tears to my eyes, I mean, voices like angels, smiles to match.

Mucha Man: Miramar IMAX, Shin Shin, Vieshow, heck I think even the one in Gongguan, Broadway.

Problem is which has seats which won’t give you a cramped neck. Buy the tickets on the Internet just to be sure.

That’s maybe because you don’t know the group performing. Vox Native (原聲) is made up of indigenous children from across Taiwan. It was started as an after-school program, I believe, to keep kids in remote areas out of trouble and enrich them and has grown since then. They often do international tours, so that’s something.

One thing I liked in the film is how it could not possibly have been made 30 years ago (technological constraints aside). Businesses would protest. The government would squash it or twist it to be going on about how great the “economic miracle” is. Fighter jets would fly past Yushan. The ROC flag would be everywhere, and it would end with a picture of Sun Yat-sen.

I give props to Chi Po-lin for ending it with indigenous children on Yushan, but it would have been better without the flags in their hands…

Hear me out: I’m talking about the sudden shift at the end of the film to “aboriginal culture” (singing, dancing–all the stereotypes) right on the heels of an extended discussion of the political economy informing environmental destruction in Taiwan. If the film had the guts (or more precisely the intellectual rigour) to square things off, it would take us, ironically, back to the ground: the ongoing battles for safe and dignified living in the face of the nuclear waste dump on Lanyu, forced relocation after Morakot, intensified tourism in places like Sun Moon Lake where aboriginal communities are not getting their share, etc.

Of course this would have been an entirely different film. But since the film claims to take on environmental concerns in Taiwan, it’s reasonable to ask why it didn’t push its critique to the next logical step. Positioning those aboriginal kids in this way at the end of the film is a step back, not a step forward.

That’s my take. :2cents:

Guy

I haven’t seen the film, and I’m usually the first to complain about propaganda and taking the soft line.

But, people here are obsessed about face. To get them to see the reality of Taiwan is a huge achievement, sugar coating it at the end makes things easier for them to swallow.

Heh. I suppose they could have put a big smiley face on Nuclear Power Plant Number Four (shown briefly at one point, IIRC) and made us all feel warm and happy about that too.

Guy

In other news: a coworker went to see it yesterday and their copy broke down mid-way. His row neighbor was not happy: it was his second time to see it, and second time he couldn’t finish it. Apparently, they have made so many copies and it is playing in so many theaters that the copies are coming out not so good… or they are breaking apart! Talk about being too popular!

The first things needed to fix a problem is to acknowledge there is a problem and understand the problem. This type of movie being popular is very heartening, it gives me hope that things can go on a better trajectory.