The vigorous and athletic Pasuya Wen-chih Yao became the director of the Kaohsiung City Government Information Department in 1998. In 2004, he took the helm of TTV Cultural Enterprise, and in March of this year he moved into the minister's position at the Government Information Office (GIO). Upon assuming this role, Yao immediately announced the goal of "bringing about the birth of 100 Taiwanese movies." Why would someone who studied politics and embarked upon a career in that field choose the painful and difficult path of movies?
When Yao proposed the aim of bringing about the birth of 100 Taiwanese movies upon taking up his new job, quite a few members of media and movie circles heaped ridicule upon him. "It's not that I'm unaware of the difficulties involved. It's just that administrative work can get so tiring that if you don't embrace some romantic ideals, how can you keep on going?" Having just returned from talks with the Ministry of National Defense regarding sponsorship of filming projects, he needed to rush over to the opening screening of the documentary Let it Be that same evening to give a speech. Movies virtually occupy more then half of Yao's working time.
Before the 1990s, there was an abundance of locally produced movies and the output of Taiwan's entertainment industry led the Chinese-speaking world. Nowadays, however, audiences mostly watch Hollywood or Korean fare. Yao states that the decline of the moviemaking industry affects the formation of Taiwanese cultural consciousness and the output of cultural content. "This is an issue of cultural dignity."
The thought of increasing the number of domestic films from last year's 24 to 100 may be somewhat crazy, but in actuality when Yao was heading up TTV Cultural Enterprise he had already established a movie department with plans to shoot films. For his first project he chose to film a documentary on the life of elder statesman and former national policy advisor Peng Ming-min. Having previously worked as his secretary, Yao feels that from Peng's drafting of the "Manifesto to Save Taiwan" in the 1960s, through being blacklisted by the authorities and fleeing overseas, to his return home after the lifting of martial law, and finally to representing the Democratic Progressive Party in the first-ever popular-vote presidential election, Peng Ming-min's remarkable life experiences are a veritable microcosm of Taiwan's modern history.
Having already come up with a proposal for the filming project, Yao was in the process of raising funds just as Frank Hsieh was forming his cabinet, and Yao found himself returning to Premier Hsieh's team. His role transformed from an individual movie investor to a behind-the-scenes promoter of local cinema.
"Taiwanese movies need to advance in both quantity and quality in order to stand up. A few strong marquee titles would, of course, be very good, but it is still a weak showing. Moreover, a hundred movies would only be making a show of 'quantity,' and it's a target that we'll all try to shoot for. Besides that, the audio-visual industry is already developing towards digitalization. Media convergence is also another area in which we'll be focusing our efforts in the future." For example, Yao explains how the documentary Jump! Boys was originally shot using a DV camera. Afterwards, as a result of receiving many positive reviews it was converted to film, so that could be considered a movie as well. Yao feels that through integration, connection, reproduction, and matching human resources, as well as breaking down the distinction between commercial and artistic films and drawing in more documentaries, animations, and television movies, it would definitely be possible to have 100 locally produced movies.
As for nurturing the digital entertainment industry, Yao emphasizes that the administration places great importance on its cultural and physical education policies, and so next year it has allocated NT$1.1 billion to promoting the digital entertainment industry. His responsibility is to integrate resources from different areas, liven up the domestic movie market, and step up the development of the overall digital media industry.
With regards to using government subsidies to shoot films, Yao's initial thoughts are that Taiwan's scenic features and cultural celebrations should be made part of the movies. Either that or Taiwan should serve as the story background. Perhaps this would limit the scope of the subject matter. "But if a violent gangster movie or a horror film were shot, many people would wonder why this kind of commercial film would need government subsidies. They should be competing in the market based upon their strengths!"
However, the reality of movies is that their production depends on a great amount of capital. The budget of a single Hollywood film can easily reach US$100 million. Furthermore, the process of applying for government financial assistance would take too long. Therefore, the GIO has also drafted a tax incentive plan to reward investments in domestic movies. Double Edge Entertainment has already invested NT$30 million in domestic movie production, for which they can get a tax break of 20%. Yao also hopes that in the future the technology industry will be encouraged to invest in movie production so that profits from their successes can be given back to society.
The outline of the plan to promote the production of 100 movies is taking shape. Through government policy guidance and bringing together different types of objectives and resources, Yao wants to re-forge the links within Taiwan's movie industry and create a second New Taiwan Cinema miracle.
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