When the Age of Discovery began in the early 15th century, the world started to communicate and exchange different cultures. As a core connection between East and Southeast Asia, Taiwan brought the European, Asian, Taiwanese, and Indigenous people together. When Taiwan entered the world 400 years ago, it was not only the start of its modern history, but also the opening of its rapid development.

“We have to understand our roots to know what the future holds.” To highlight the cultural diversity and recognize Taiwan’s international status in the past, film director Te-Sheng Wei launched the Taiwan Trilogy project. Through three different perspectives of the Indigenous Taiwanese, a Han Chinese pirate, and the Dutch missionary, the movie specifically explores the momentous events happening in this period. In addition, the director has set his sights on preserving the movie sets to build a theme park that exhibits Taiwan’s cultural diversity 400 years ago: the Formosa Wonderland. Director Wei will share this project idea in person with us and encourage everyone to open their minds and be moved from learning about the history of Taiwan. This program is co-presented with Fairchild TV. 

His movie Cape No. 7 broke out of the Taiwanese cinema slump and established an all-time box office record for a domestic film. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale depicted a historical incident in Taiwan, presenting breathtaking scenery in the film and ultimately becoming an epic in the Taiwanese film industry. Even if director Wei was not initially interested in film production, his work has elevated Taiwanese cinema and created a vision to accomplish something bigger. Under the inspiration of director Edward Yang, Te-Sheng Wei used movies to explore and recount the stories on this island. He believed movies could foster Taiwan’s cultural awareness and greatly honour Taiwanese achievement. With his curiosity and open-minded attitude, Director Wei will give us a diverse and unique cinema experience as we walk alongside him through this remarkable film-making journey.