16.05.2019Taiwan Film Series: Taiwan's Lost Commercial Cinema: Recovered and Restored: The Bride Who Has Returned from Hell (1965)

Date and Time

May 16, 2019, starting 6 pm

Location

University of Zurich, Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies, Room RAA G 15, Rämistrasse 59, 8001 Zürich

The Film

The movie opens with a boat accident. A male body is discovered. While a woman’s purse is also left at the scene, no female body is found. Entrepreneur Wang Yiming (Ke Junxiong) is led to believe that his wife eloped with her lover and was drowned at sea. Feeling hurt and humiliated, Yiming employs Bai Ruimei (Jin Mei) to be a private tutor to his daughter. Ruimei, in fact, has come to Taiwan from Singapore to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her sister. ‘This film is both the full blossom of “Taiwanese-Language Cinema” (1955–1972) and a unique flower of its own in Taiwanese film history. [...] It illustrates the enthusiasm of the time and endeavors to explore new stories and fresh elements while also demonstrating director Hsin Chi’s [Xin Qi] experimentalism. The narrative combines the rifts, risks, and restoration of domestic (usually patriarchal) order of family melodrama with the suspense, mystery, romantic entanglement, and supernatural elements of Gothic romance.’ --Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Ministry of Culture, ROC

Please note

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session.
Registration required: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScq88Ifk_XbcWKO44dNLtVK696KWwEKXbrfaSj9HKwjPe0KTA/viewform

Convenor

The event is co-organized by the Taiwan Studies Project and the Department of Chinese Studies (IAOS) at the University of Zurich.