Since the release of Avatar, 3D cinema has made a tremendous impact across the globe. But with Taiwan's relatively small market, the nation's 3D film industry is still in its infancy.
Yet our 3D gurus have been anything but idle. An innovative film, Mayday 3DNA, which documents a live concert by Taiwan pop band Mayday, is currently in production, and there are plans to produce the world's first 3D film of traditional puppet theatre. This will involve Pili International Multimedia Co. in collaboration with the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC), a division of the National Applied Research Laboratories. However, concerned directors and production houses are generally not optimistic for the future of 3D. Typical comments are: "3D films just use special effects to cheat audiences," "3D means massive increases in shooting time and costs," and "We're lucky to have the opportunity to make movies at all, so why tempt fate with the uncertainties of 3D?"
Whether these views reveal rational judgments or overly pessimistic excuses is a matter of opinion. However, there is a small number of filmmakers who are not shrinking from the array of technical and financial obstacles and are embracing the possibilities of 3D, despite the industry's current lack of robustness. They are willing to experiment, progressing bravely along a very lonely and risky one-way road. Among this select group are Charlie Chu, who produced Taiwan's first 3D live-action film Clownfish, and Hsu Chin-liang, who made his name in Taiwan during the 1970s as master of the student movie genre.
The two, the "well-matured" and the "veteran," come from different generations, but despite differences in age, seniority and directing experience, embrace a common passion for the new digital-age technology of 3D. The two have been pathfinders for the 3D blitz, and will no doubt remain a major force in the future development of three-dimensional filmmaking in Taiwan.
Hsu Chin-liang, a graduate of the Department of Fine Arts of National Taiwan Normal University, possesses considerable artistic talent. The bronze statue on the left is one of his works, which follows Liang Kai's famous ink painting from the Southern Song Dynasty, Pomo Xianren (Immortal Monk). The work is exquisitely proportioned and has finely detailed facial features.
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