Program Guide - San Francisco International Film Festival - San ...

New Directors
86
aRTEmiSia
aI-TSaO
NORTh amERICaN pREmIERE
Taiwan
2008
85 min
DiR Chiang Hsiu-chiung
PROD Wu Jui-yen
SCR Tseng Yu-chieh
Cam Chin Ting-chang
ED Chen Po-wen
mUS Li Hsin-yun
CaST Pan Li-li, Mo Tzu-yi, Chuo Heng-yin
PRinT SOURCE Public Television Service
Foundation, No. 100, Lane 75, Sect. 3, Kang-
Ning Road, 114 Taipei, Taiwan. FAX: 886-22-
630-1895. EMAIL: prg70126@mail.pts.org.tw.
CaUSES LGBT Issues, Youth
GGa TElEviSiOn naRRaTivE winnER
In Taiwanese with English subtitles.
Presented with support from Taipei Economic
and Cultural Office, San Francisco.
Like many of her male predecessors in the Taiwanese
New Wave, director Chiang Hsiu-chiung probes the
generational and cultural conflicts confronting modern
families in Taiwan. Her well-scripted debut is a matrilineal
drama about three generations of resilient women. In a
powerfully subdued performance, famed Taiwanese opera
star and actress Pan Li Li portrays the title role of Ai-tsao,
a single 58-year-old woman who cares for her critical,
penny-pinching mother and closeted gay son. As a young
woman, Ai-tsao defied her conservative family to marry
an older mainlander and pursue an independent life in
Taipei. Now widowed for over 20 years, she proudly dotes
on her two children, for whom she has dutifully worked
to provide a good life and first-rate education. Chiang’s
compassionate, observant camera tracks the small and
sometimes playful details of Ai-tsao’s unwavering daily
routine: morning tai chi in the park, coastal bus rides to
her mother’s house, dinner conversations with her son
and the occasional visit to model apartments for extended
family. When small clues begin to expose her son’s
gay relationship, Ai-tsao struggles to quietly accept his
unspoken transgression. However, when her daughter
returns from abroad harboring a secret as well, Ai-tsao
is forced to find the courage to reevaluate her own past
and her most fundamental values. Like the wild and hardy
plant of her namesake, she discovers that she must adapt
to her ever-changing environment if she is to protect and
preserve the family she cherishes.
—Kyle Stephan
ChianG hSiU-ChiUnG
While completing her graduate studies in theater and
screenwriting at the Taipei National University of the Arts,
Chiang Hsiu-chiung delivered a Golden Horse–nominated
performance in Edward Yang’s epic A Brighter Summer Day
(SFIFF 1992). Behind the scenes, Chiang worked as assistant
director and performance supervisor on Yang’s films, including
A Confucian Confusion (SFIFF 1995) and A One and a Two,
and those of Hou Hsiao-hsien: Flowers of Shanghai, SFIFF
1999) and Millennium Mambo (SFIFF 2002). After directing
several short films and television segments, she presents her
debut feature film, Artemisia.
SUN apR 26 9:15 KaBUKI aRTE26K
SUN maY 3 12:45 KaBUKI aRTE03K
ThU maY 7 8:30 KaBUKI aRTE07K