Taiwanese films are about to be officially streamed on the Indian over-the-top (OTT) platform, sharing Taiwanese cultural custom with Indian audiences in the post-epidemic era. For the first time, the Ministry of Culture leveraged an OTT platform to broadcast high-quality Taiwanese films in India, encouraging Indian audiences to learn about Taiwan through films and increase their interest in Taiwan.
The Deputy Minister, Lee Ching-Hwi, the Ministry of Culture mention in her speech that when she served at National Palace Museum, she had held an exhibition “India Month” with India-Taipei Association to display the Museum Collections of India Cultural Relics. We also invited India Performance Team in Taiwan through India-Taipei Association to make Taiwanese people realize more about this country filled with mystery and culture through mutual cooperation.
Lee states that hopefully this cooperation between Taiwan and India can help local people to know about Taiwan through movies produced by the enormous Indian film and television industrial energy. “Movies integrate our cultural background, music and images which are the best media to see every impression of Taiwan.” It’s the first time for the Ministry of Culture to use Indian local OTT to drive marketing campaign of our movies. We hope to release Taiwanese movies and even the entire Taiwanese culture due to the feature of easy accessibility of the platform.
The Deputy Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, Mu-Min Chen indicates through video, “I am stationed in India, so I can deeply realize the penetration rate of online movie watching. It is estimated that there are over 80000000 OTT using population. Thanks to the enforcement of Legislator Kuan Bi-ling in the first place, the Ministry of Culture promotes Taiwanese movies in Indian area this time. We are looking forward to seeing more Taiwanese movies produced into India.
Indian internet celebrity Taindian DJ also joins the press video conference. He visited Taiwan in 2014 before. He finds out that Neither Taiwan nor India knows each other well about culture and history. Therefore he creates channel to produce movies to share the beauty of these two countries. He is pleased to encourage Indian people never lose this golden opportunity to enjoy Taiwanese movies.
The Indian internet celebrity Aakash Malhotra visited Taiwan in 2019. He was invited to stay overnight at the Office of the President at that time. He says through overseas call that he is deeply impressed on Taiwan. Favorably loving Taiwan, he is so honored to have the opportunity to promote Taiwanese movies in India.
From March 1st to May 31st of this year (2022), on the Indian OTT platform MXPlayer, free access to movies, including “Beyond Beauty-Taiwan from Above” overlooking the land of Taiwan with aerial photography; “My Missing Valentine”, a romantic fantasy with laughter and tears; “Long Time No Sea”, a film of aboriginal culture and island culture; “Love Talk” a film of cross-country pursuit of love; and “The Silent Forest”, an adaptation of a real-life societal incident. The sharing and cooperation between Taiwan and India will increase the understanding and connection between Taiwan and India.
Five well-known films will be broadcasted this time. Awarded five Golden Horse Awards, “My Missing Valentine” used the logic of time travel to compose a magical love story that the lover will disappear on Valentine’s Day. “Love Talk”, adapted from the short story of the legendary Japanese female writer Kanoko Okamoto, is a love story shot across Japan, Taiwan, and Malaysia. For this film, Director Kuo Chen-Ti received the “Best Director Award” and “Best Concept Award” at the 2021 Roshani International Film Festival in India. “Long Time No Sea”, which took 6 years of production, presents the land and people of the Lanyu island, and tells a simple but moving story of Taiwanese indigenous people. “The Silent Forest” is inspired by a real-life school scandal in Taiwan to explore in-depth the multiple helpless situations in life. At the 2021 International Film Festival of India, for this film, Director Ko Chen-Nien won the “Best Director Silver Peacock Award” and Troy Liu won the “Best Director”. Best Actor Silver Peacock Award”. “Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above”, which won the 2013 Golden Horse Award for Best Documentary, was directed by the deceased aerial photographer Chi Po-Lin. After 400 hours of flight, through the camera on the helicopter, the film overlooks the beauty and nature of Taiwanese landscapes and shows the changes of landscapes due to people’s selfish destruction, which evokes reflections on homeland and nature conservation.
Regarding academic exchanges with India and the promotion of Chinese language learning, the Center for India Studies at the National Tsing Hua University has also joined us by using the resources of the Taiwan Education Center in India to assist in the promotion of cooperative academic institutions in India and to bring Taiwanese films to Indian higher education institutions.