Cinema
Super Citizen Ko
超級大國民
Wan Jen · 1995
Synopsis
After sixteen years in prison for political reasons, in the time of the White Terror, Mr Ko has lived for eighteen years alone in a retirement home. A nightmare drives him to leave it: he wants to find the trace of Chen, the friend he betrayed thirty-four years earlier. He sees former companions again, renews, after a fashion, his ties with his daughter, and crosses a Taipei that he no longer recognises.
Context
It is the second part of Wan Jen's “super citizens” trilogy. He wrote it with Liao Ching-sung, who edited and produced it, and the writer Wu Nien-jen composed the hero's interior monologues. The film blends the layers of memory with the landscape of a city in the midst of transformation. Restored by the Taiwan Film Institute, it was re-released in Taiwan in 2016 and was shown in France at the Vesoul and Rennes festivals.
Who it is for
A film in Mandarin and Taiwanese with subtitles; knowing what the White Terror was illuminates every scene.
Prizes and reception
Taiwan submitted it for the Oscar for best foreign-language film, and it received the screenplay prize at the Fajr festival in Tehran.
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