The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) in New York and Asian CineVision will co-present the stunning new Taiwanese film “No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti” (Cannot Live Without You) on October 26th from 5:30 to 8:00 at TECO, located at 1 E 42nd St. in Midtown. The script writer and leading actor of the film, Wen-Pin Chen, will be on hand for Q&A following the screening, moderated by Mr. John Woo, Acting Director of Asian CineVision. A Chinese-style buffet dinner will be provided after the event.
“No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti” has received international accolades, winning Best Film among other awards at the 2009 Taipei Film Festival, the Grand Prize of Japan’s Skip City International D-Cinema Festival, and Best Feature Film of South Africa’s Durban International Film Festival. *It has been selected to represent Taiwan in the competition for Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars.* The film will make its New York-area premiere at the 2009 FilmColumbia Festival on October 24th.
This is a wonderful opportunity not to be missed for lovers of Taiwanese film. Seating is limited, so if you would like to attend please RSVP by contacting April Chen at 212-317-7356 or by e-mail at aprilchen@taipei.org.
No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (Cannot Live Without You) trailer
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*SYNOPSIS*
The film is based on real-life characters and incidents.
Wu-Hsiung, father of a seven-year-old girl, lives in a fishing village in Kaohsiung with his daughter. Despite his lower level of income, he leads a simple but satisfying life with the girl. When his daughter reaches the age for school, he has to struggle with the police department and the social workers for her custody and domicile registration. Driven by desperation for help, he dares to challenge society with daunting moves to fight for the right to live with his daughter…Adapted from a real life event in Taiwan happened at a difficult time, this is a movie that will touch your heart.
*DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT*
The incident that inspired this film happened in 2003. More than six Taiwanese TV channels had live broadcast the man threatening to jump off the pedestrian bridge with his daughter. The coverage continued for about twenty minutes. However, no follow-ups of the news were seen on TV ever again.
I spent a long time thinking how to tell the story but I couldn’t fine the right “color tone” for it. I realize that by making the film in simple black-and-white, it may be less appealing for the commercial market. But I hope the audience will be able to use more of their imagination and to give these images their own colors.