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| Second New Wave (Taiwanese cinema) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Second New Wave (Taiwanese cinema) |
| Years active | 1980s–1990s |
| Country | Taiwan |
| Preceded by | Taiwanese New Wave |
| Notable films | A City of Sadness; Vive L'Amour; A Brighter Summer Day |
| Notable directors | Hou Hsiao-hsien; Edward Yang; Tsai Ming-liang |
Second New Wave (Taiwanese cinema) The Second New Wave of Taiwanese cinema emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s as a cohort of filmmakers, producers, critics, and festivals who followed the Taiwanese New Wave, advancing formal experimentation and transnational production. It overlapped with political liberalization after the lifting of martial law and interacted with institutions, festivals, distributors, and academic programs across Taipei, Taichung, Tainan, and international circuits. The movement is associated with a set of directors, cinematographers, screenwriters, and producers who participated in film festivals, art museums, and state-supported bodies.
The origins trace to the aftermath of Martial Law in Taiwan and to cultural shifts influenced by events such as the Kaohsiung Incident, the rise of the Democratic Progressive Party, and educational reforms at National Taiwan University. Early catalysts included the film criticism of journals like Sight & Sound-influenced periodicals and the programming of the Taipei Film Festival, the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, and retrospectives at the National Palace Museum and the Taipei Fine Arts Museum. Transnational links with the Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin International Film Festival, and the Venice Film Festival helped bring attention to Taiwanese auteurs, while coproduction frameworks with companies such as Criterion Collection partners, and broadcasters like Public Television Service (Taiwan), reshaped financing.
Core filmmakers included Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, Chu T’ien-wen (as writer), Ang Lee (as antecedent and international peer), Wang Toon, Yang Li-hua, Hou Hsiao-hsien's cinematographer collaborators such as DoP Mark Lee Ping-bing and screenwriters connected to Central Motion Picture Corporation. Producers and curators such as Hsu Li-kong, festival programmers like Liu Chia-chang and critics from Film Quarterly-linked outlets contributed. Cinematographers included Chen Hsiao-ching and editors like Sung Chu-hsuan. Actors and performers such as Sihung Lung, Lin Cheng-sheng collaborators, and musicians linked to Lim Giong populated the milieu.
Aesthetics favored long takes, static framing, elliptical narratives, and ambient soundscapes reminiscent of Italian Neorealism retrospectives and the work of auteurs programmed at Cannes. Themes engaged with urban alienation in Taipei, historical memory of the 228 Incident, family disintegration in the style of Taiwanese melodrama traditions, and migration narratives connecting Taiwan with Hong Kong and China. Filmmakers drew on influences from Ozu Yasujirô retrospectives, the French New Wave, and Hong Kong art cinema programmers, emphasizing mise-en-scène, temporal duration, and memory politics in dialogue with scholars at Academia Sinica and the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.
Representative films included A City of Sadness (Hou Hsiao-hsien), Yi Yi (Edward Yang), Vive L'Amour (Tsai Ming-liang), A Brighter Summer Day (Edward Yang), The Puppetmaster (Hou Hsiao-hsien), and Time to Live, Time to Die (Hou Hsiao-hsien). Case studies often examine the depiction of the 228 Incident in A City of Sadness, urban modernity in Vive L'Amour set in Taipei's public housing, the adolescence and gang subculture rendered in A Brighter Summer Day with links to Chinese Nationalist Party histories, and the minimalist staging of Tsai Ming-liang's films that engage with itinerant characters and migrant labor tied to Southeast Asia diasporas.
Institutional support emerged from entities such as the Central Motion Picture Corporation, the Taiwan Ministry of Culture, the Wire and Television Bureau-affiliated funds, and university film programs at National Taiwan University of Arts and Chinese Culture University. International funding and distribution channels included collaborations with France's CNC, European co-production funds, and sales agents active at the European Film Market and Hong Kong International Film Festival. Exhibition venues ranged from the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards screenings to arthouse cinemas like Spot Huashan and programming by the Taipei Film Festival. Preservation and archiving efforts were later undertaken by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute.
Critical reception included awards at Cannes Film Festival (Palme d'Or nominees and winners), Venice Film Festival prizes, and recognition at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival. Scholars published in journals such as Film Quarterly and monographs from Routledge-linked series analyzed auteurs' methods, while critics at outlets like The New York Times and Sight & Sound framed the movement in global art cinema discourse. Influence extended to Hong Kong cinema figures like Wong Kar-wai, mainland directors such as Jia Zhangke (as an interlocutor), and younger Taiwanese filmmakers nurtured through state grants and university mentorships.
The legacy persists in contemporary festivals, restoration projects by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, and teaching at National Taiwan University and international programs at Columbia University and Hong Kong Baptist University. Its aesthetics and political engagements inform recent works by directors associated with the Taipei Art Festival circuit, independent producers, and cross-strait coproductions that reference the 228 Incident and Taiwanese identity debates in relation to the Presidential Office Building and civic movements. Restoration releases by institutions like the Cineteca di Bologna and retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art continue to circulate Second New Wave films to new audiences.