TAIWAN CINEMA SHOWCASE
ON THE TRAIN
(南方, 寂寞鐵道)
U.S. PREMIERE
Taiwan | Documentary | 2023 | 106 minutes | In Mandarin w/English subtitles
DIRECTOR: Chu-chen Hsiao
Available for streaming March 23-29, 2024 for U.S. viewers.
SYNOPSIS:
Director Hsiao and the production team spent five years making this documentary, exploring the stories of the engineers who built the South Link Line. Director Hsiao was able to record the last magnificent and unsophisticated features of the line before the electrification of this railroad. Most of the old trains and platforms in the documentary have become history and no longer exist.
ON THE TRAIN presents three generations of engineers and their collective memories of growing up and the romance of their own youth.
Chu-chen Hsiao, Director
Chu-chen Hsiao is an experienced documentary director and TV series producer, currently teaching at National Tsing Hua University as an Associate Professor. Her documentaries, THE RED LEAF LEGEND (1999) and GRANDMA'S HAIRPIN (2000) won two consecutive Best Documentary at the Golden Horse award, and were nominated and selected by IDFA, Yamagata Int’l Documentary FF, BUSAN Int’l FF, and many other prestigious film festivals. Hsiao also dedicated herself to filming the stories of Taiwanese filmmakers. OUR TIME, OUR STORY (2002) and FACE TAIWAN: POWER OF TAIWAN CINEMA (2015), which encapsulated the decline and regrowth of Taiwanese movie industry, were both screened at BIFF and Golden Horse FF.
