Love Talk
Nominated for
Best Feature Film
Directed by
Chen-ti Kuo
94' • Taiwan • 2020
Language:
Japanese, Mandarin Chinese
The stories in the film are adapted from “Farewell, To The Year Gone By” and “The House Spirit” by Japanese novelist Kanoko Okamoto, set in Taiwan, Yamagata of Japan, and Kuala Lumpur in 2021. Fantastic and humorous, they depict the “landscapes of love” of men and women in contemporary times. Okamoto examines the love between men and women from an Asian perspective, which is greatly influenced by Buddhism. In contemporary cinematic language, the film shows the forward-looking and universal resonance of Kanoko Okamoto’s 1930 literary works far beyond its region and era.
Director's Bio: Chen-ti KUO is an award-winning director specializing in documentaries and feature films. She started directing theatrical productions during college at National Taiwan University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Her interest in the arts led her to pursue a Master of Fine Arts at Temple University in the US, honing her skills in writing and directing for radio, television and film. As a writer, Kuo was thrice the recipient of the government-funded Excellent Screenplay Awards for her works: Bicycle Diary (1997), Red Snow (2002) and Romance Century (2007). Kuo’s background in theatre has imbued her documentaries with a sense of drama, as many critics have noted. Libangbang－Ching Wen is not Home was nominated for best short film at several international festivals, including the New York Expo of Short Film and Video in 2002. Her feature-length documentary, Viva Tonal – the Dance Age, won the Best Documentary award at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival in 2003. In the same way, her feature films reflect the social consciousness that pervades her documentaries. Her first feature film, Step by Step was released in March 2009. Her second feature is The Boar King which has been recently completed and invited by Montreal World Film Festival and Fukuoka International Film Festival. Her latest documentary Trapped by the Sea, Lost in Time was selected to be the opening film of 2016 Taiwan Documentary Film Festival in Brisbane.