Call Me by Your Favorite Film’s Name: Film-Watching Cultures among Taiwanese College Students 20 Years Ago and Now
Tags: Audience, Culture, Taiwan, Culture Change, Film

Call Me by Your Favorite Film’s Name: Film-Watching Cultures among Taiwanese College Students 20 Years Ago and Now 歐如 Follow Jul 1, 2020 · 12 min read

Call Me By Your Name. 2017.

Find the Chinese version here:

“Dancer in the Dark (2000) is returning to theaters.” I told Johnson, a Taiwanese cinephile friend in his 40’s, as My friends in college were all thrilled to watch the film.

“That was one of the films that enlightened me in my early 20’s,” he replied, “these films are now largely restored and re-released. It’s interesting to see them kind of being passed down.”

The concept of passing films down touched me. But then, of course, each generation receives the same films differently. Weeks after, when Johnson mentioned watching Fight Club (1999) in his early 20’s, a vague impression of it being a cult legend urged me to ask him, “but was Fight Club already a wenqing (“cultured youth”) must-see back in the days?”

“No, ” he said, with a little hesitation.

Have the most loved films really been passed down? Do wenqings nowadays watch the same films their predecessors did?

Curious, I spread a survey about the film-watching culture among Taiwanese college/grad school students 20 years ago (people in their 40’s) and now (people around 20), asking each participant for one to three films that they believe to be representative examples of “wenqing must-sees,” “films that most college students have seen and love,” and “personal favorites” during their college years. I made it clear on the survey that the films can be from all years, except that a participant around 40 should only mention the films that had been released before they graduated.

College/grad school students are in the most prominent age group in Taiwanese film market, and there is significance in the number 20.

It was approximately 20 years ago that people started to have easy access to the internet and a public online forum, PTT Bulletin Board System, reached its maturity. While the prevalence of the internet has changed film watching habits drastically, it might have also brought the past and the present more closely. It seems that non-mainstream films or older ones gain popularity more easily in the digital age. Possibly, film watching communities that exchange information more closely and collective imaginations of such communities (“the art film nerds,” “the superhero fans,” and so on) are more easily formed.

With these in mind, I spread the survey and collected valid responses from 425 current college students and 104 people who went to college 20 years ago. While labels can be vague (such as wenqing) and participants all have different preferences and film-watching habits, a most-agreed list can still be found in each category.

Below are the films mentioned by the highest percentage of our participants as wenqing must-sees:

Wenqing must-sees in 2020 according to the 425 participants.

Wenqing must-sees in 2000 according to the 104 participants.

Some participants also provided directors’ names. Counting the participants who mentioned a director and adding the participants who mentioned any film made by the director, I found Edward YANG the biggest name for current students (mentioned by 16% as a wenqing must-see director). WONG Kar-wai followed him closely (15%) and he is the most mentioned filmmaker by people in their 40’s (13%).

On both lists, most of the films mentioned are from the 90’s or the early 2000’s, showing a special connection between current students and the films a generation older than them. However, different from Woody Allen’s idea that the best age is always an earlier one in Midnight in Paris (2011), students in 2000 didn’t reach back — The 400 Blows, the French New Wave film on the 2020 list, is actually the only film released before 1990 among all the lists in this survey.

Maybe the internet does bring old films back more. Or, it is because the 2020 concept of wenqing were born in the 90’s that films from the decade play such an important role in the wenqing identity in 2020.

But even though 12 of the 17 films on the 2020 list are from the 90’s or the early 2000’s, only 5 items appear on both lists (Yi Yi, The Shawshank Redemption, Blue Gate Crossing, Love Letter, and The Three Colours Trilogy) and the rankings are different. Similarly, the most wenqing WONG Kar-wai film was In the Mood of Love 20 years ago, but Chungking Express has taken its place.

In the Mood for Love. 2000.

Yi-shuan CHEN, a veteran film lover, believes that wengings 20 years ago regarded In the Mood for Love as the pinnacle of WONG kar wai aesthetic, and the reflection of Hong Kongers’ distrust in promises after the Handover in 1997 resonated with Taiwanese audiences. Chungking Express was also loved, and it might have replaced In the Mood for Love over time for its rich referentiality in popular culture.

Many films on the 2020 lists are often referenced. Chungking Express, Léon: The Professional and Pulp Fiction all present iconic looks. The Before Trilogy is the key that connects different parts of the 2016 novel wén qīng zhī sǐ (The Death of Wenqing) by Hsiang-ying LAI, and the Facebook film/book review page Let Me Sing You A Waltz takes the first line of a song composed by Céline to Jesse in the trilogy.

Almost all the old films on the 2020 list have been re-released in recent years, but with only the list, it is hard to say if the films gained popularity after being re-released or the other way around. Films of Lars von Trier (such as Dancer in the Dark) were also re-released, and the films of some wenqing directors 20 years ago like David Lynch and Pedro Almodovar as well (they were mentioned by participants, but they didn’t make it to the list), but they are still less perceived to be wenqing-defining names now.

Current college student and film lover Chih Chieh WANG observed that many films on the two lists were nominees for the Golden Horse Awards, the Oscars, or prizes at Cannes. The other films are mostly high rated ones on IMDb. Léon: The Professional, for example, isn’t quite an award film, but it is the 43rd on the IMDb top 250 list.

CHEN recalled that Léon: The Professional’s initial release in Taiwan was a moderate success. However, wenqings preferred Luc Besson’s earlier films such as Subway (1985) and The Big Blue (1988). They saw Léon: The Professional more as the filmmaker’s attempt to break into Hollywood. The star of the film was Jean Reno, and nobody actually knew the newcomer Natalie Portman. He attributes the growing popularity of the film to that of Portman and reruns on movie channels.

Chungking Express. 1994.

In addition to the two possible reasons and its fame on IMDb, it might also gain popularity among Taiwanese through South Korea’s influence. People have observed that the film is more popular in South Korea in any other places, and garments and phone accessories inspired by it can be found all over Seoul. Taiwanese people’s love for Léon might be inflamed by all the garments and phone accessories imported to Taiwan from South Korea.

Blue Gate Crossing, as CHEN recalled, was another film with actors that have become well-known over the 20 years. He agreed with the result that it was a film favored by and only by wenqings. He was surprised when he first saw Yi Yi on the list because most Taiwanese didn’t even have the chance to see it. Yi Yi wasn’t released in Taiwan until 2017. Before 2017, the film was only sometimes screened in film festivals. After some second thoughts, CHEN agreed that maybe it was exactly the scarcity that made it a wenqing-defining film.

One the list, there is also the intriguing case of Fight Club. I thought it gained popularity over time because I’ve read so much about it’s legend as a cult legend that was neglected when it first came out. However, as CHEN remembered, the film’s reception history wasn’t so dramatic in Taiwan. As he knew, it was discussed rather heatedly. He was a student at National Taiwan University, and it was after a younger student did a report on the film that he watched the film at a second-run theater.

One hundred people imagine wenqings in one hundred ways, and that’s why a collective, descriptive list is much fun. Would people’s ideas of “films that most college students have seen and loved” be less surprising? Let’s see:

Popular movies in 2020 according to the 425 participants.

Popular movies in 2000 according to the 104 participants.

Compared to the wenqing lists, people agree more on what most of their peers see and like. As many as 42.3% of current students gave the term “Marvel movies” or “The Avengers Series” (a few used the Marvel Cinematic Universe or the MCU), and many others mentioned sub-series or individual movie titles. The percentage of the first place on the 2000 list, Titanic (24%) is outstanding as well. Films that appear on both the wenqing lists and the popular lists are good examples of the vagueness of wenqing.

As under the category of wenqing, certain filmmakers’ works are mentioned a lot. Among current students, 9.2% mentioned films by Christopher Nolan (such as Inception and The Dark Knight Trilogy), and 12.5% of participants in their 40s mentioned films with Stephen Chow.

Apart from the directors, the MCU is the biggest brand name. Often regarded as a match for the MCU, films based on DC Comics publications such as Joker and The Dark Knight Trilogy are also frequently mentioned, but few people gave “DC films” as an item.

Films on the two lists don’t overlap much, for most films on the lists are contemporary. The Harry Potter Series, a rare exception, lasted a decade. It witnessed people in their 40’s graduate from college, and current college students cherish it as a collective childhood memory like Spirited Away. Another rare exception is the long-time champion of IMDb Top 250, The Shawshank Redemption. In fact, it is the only film that appear on all the lists in this survey, including the following two.

CHEN commented that Shaolin Soccer was indeed the most representative work with Stephen Chow, even surpassing Kung Fu Hustle (2004). Chow’s status as a film auteur was secured after Shaolin Soccer. Sassy Girl also had a distinct place in his memory. He recalled that it was the first commercial success ever made by a South Korean film in Taiwan.

A significant change over the 20 years is the growth of Taiwanese films’ popularity. Following the 90’s, the winter of local film production in Taiwan, not one Taiwanese film is on the 2000 list. On the 2020 one, however, Our Times, You Are the Apple of My Eye, and the more recent Detention prove the energy in local film productions after the “revival” in 2008 following the blockbuster Cape №7 (2008).

The most unpredictable lists in this survey are the ones about favorites. Wenqing must-sees and popular films are by definition collective, and shard imaginations about the two are probably reinforced online in the digital age. But what films are picked as personal favorites the most?

Personal favorites of the 425 current college students.

Personal favorites of the 104 participants around 40.

Although participants tended to give different titles for the three categories, the favorite lists are beautiful blends of the previous two, proving that these films are popular in general and/or among a certain group of people.

The two lists do not overlap at all. Also, naturally, favorites overlap less between peers, but some were still noticeably mentioned more.

Farewell My Concubine (re-released in both 2018 and 2020 in Taiwan) is often discussed among current college students for its depiction of Cultural Revolution and gender fluidity in Chinese opera. The late leading actor Leslie Cheung is also widely loved as a brilliant artist and gay icon.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is the latest film on the 2020 list and the only film that’s not English-speaking or Mandarin-speaking on both lists of favorites. As all the lists above show, comparatively, films of this kind are still rarely discussed in Taiwan. Ihe distributor of Portrait of a Lady on Fire in Taiwan is Andrews Film Co. Ltd, a company partly famous for social media marketing. With fine merch and non-stop memes, it successfully introduced the Cannes winning film to college students so that they can fall in love with it.

Documentary films are also not mentioned much in the survey, but there are some visible trends outside the lists. French director Agnes Varda’s documentaries are mentioned by participants in both groups as one of their favorites. And along with a few people that provide the category “political documentaries” as wenqing muse-sees, her documentaries are also mentioned under that category. Her popularity may be traced back to Taipei Film Festival’s Filmmaker in Focus program in 2019 and other screening activities following the world’s loss of Varda.

We can see the significance of The Lord of the Rings Series from the 2000 list, and the appearance of Fight Club on the 2000 list may also prove that it left a strong impression on Taiwanese moviegoers back in the days.