Taiwan is getting a dedicated national focus at the International Classic Film Market (MIFC), the industry arm of Lyon’s Lumière Festival, the first for a non-European country, according to the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI). A new 4K restoration of Chen Kun-hou’s “Osmanthus Alley” leads the Taiwan in Focus program, which runs alongside this year’s guest country, Greece. TFAI is using the showcase to seek international distribution and programming partners for the island’s restored classics.
TFAI says distributors it has previously worked with have expressed interest, with release terms and timing still under negotiation. Adapted from Hsiao Li-hung’s novel, the film follows Thik-hông (Lu), an orphan who marries into a wealthy family, is widowed young and sees her son sent away to Japan, leaving her isolated behind the walls of the family estate. Simon Yam and Tuo Tsung-hua appear in guest roles.
Lu won best actress at the 1987 Asia Pacific Film Festival, and the theme song, with lyrics by Wu Nien-jen, took the Golden Horse for best original film song. The restoration also brings back the film’s original Taiwanese soundtrack. Chen insisted on shooting in Taiwanese, but state-run Central Motion Picture Corporation (CMPC) chose to release the film in Mandarin, in line with the government’s policy of promoting the language at the time.
Chen eventually persuaded the studio to produce a Taiwanese version, but it played in only a limited number of theaters and gradually faded from view. Its selection coincides with the 70th anniversary of Taiwanese-language cinema, which TFAI traces to 1956’s “Xue Pinggui yu Wang Baochuan.” An estimated 1,200 Taiwanese-language films were made between the 1960s and 1981, but only about 200 survive in TFAI’s collection. The restoration also anticipates TFAI’s 2027 focus on literary adaptations, while Chen’s lifetime achievement award at the 2023 Golden Horse Awards prompted renewed interest in his work.
Chen began as a cinematographer, winning a Golden Horse for “He Never Gives Up” (1978), and from 1979 worked closely with Hou Hsiao-hsien, the pair often trading roles behind the camera. Chen’s “Growing Up” won him the Golden Horse for best director in 1983. TFAI restored “Osmanthus Alley” from its original 35mm negative, filling missing frames from an interpositive, with audio drawn from the 35mm Taiwanese sound negative.
The source was generally in good condition, but mold spots and dense clusters of small white specks required careful treatment. Aggressive cleaning settings risked erasing image detail, so technicians used masks and adjusted processing settings before completing frame-by-frame manual repairs. In line with FIAF’s code of ethics, Chen was repeatedly consulted.
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