Cinema of Taiwan

The cinema of Taiwan or Taiwan cinema (Chinese: 臺灣電影 or 台灣電影) is deeply rooted in the island's unique history. Since its introduction to Taiwan in 1901 under Japanese rule, cinema has developed in Taiwan under ROC rule through several distinct stages, including taiyu pian (Taiwanese film) of the 1950s and 1960s, genre films of the 1960s and 1970s, including jiankang xieshi pian (healthy realist film), wuxia pian (sword-fighting film), aiqing wenyi pian (literary romantic film), zhengxuan pian (political propaganda film), and shehui xieshi pian (social realist film), Taiwan New Cinema of the 1980s, and the new wave of the 1990s and afterwards. Starting in the second decade of the new millennium, documentary films also became a representative part of Taiwan cinema.

Taiwan cinema is internationally known for its representative directors, including Fong Chiung, King Hu, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-liang, Chang Tso-chi, Chung Mong-hong, and Midi Zhao.

From the late Japanese colonial period to martial law in Taiwan, the development of Taiwanese film was dominated by the official camp studio development. The film produced during that stage was mainly news footage taken by the government-run studio (Taiwan film companies, the Central Motion Picture Corporation, China Film Studio) and political propaganda. Even today, the Taiwanese government maintains a "Film Fund" to financially support the film industry of the country. The fund is somewhat controversial yet is still well supported.

The Government Information Office was in charge of the film grant before 2012. Grants were divided into two groups of $5 million and $800 million. The production cost works out to be around a minimum of $120 million across 15 films. The application contains certain specifications to allow the correct amount of money to be allocated to a given film's production, for example the purpose of the $5 million grant is to encourage new directors directing a feature film for the first time.

The Ministry of Culture is in charge of film policy and film industry since 2012.

After the documentary about Taiwan's traumatic earthquake in 1999 Life (生命, 2004) garnered then record-high 30,000,000NT at the box office, documentary films from Taiwan have also become more popular. The development of Taiwanese documentaries began after lifting of martial law in 1987 and the rise in popularity of small electronic camcorders, as well as the support and promotion provided by the Taiwan Council for Cultural Affairs. Documentaries also receive support from other government agencies and private corporations. A variety of film festivals and awards have been established to encourage the production of documentaries.

Taiwanese documentaries often deal with themes related to the filmmaker or their family, and explore serious social or political issues. These documentaries have started to gain international attention gradually, and many have gone on to win awards at international film festivals.

The first film was introduced into Taiwan by Toyojirō Takamatsu (高松豊次郎; see 高松豐次郎) in 1901. Taiwanese cinema was the first, and from 1900 to 1937, one of the most important of Japan's colonial film markets during the era of Japanese rule. In 1905, Takamatsu raised 10,000 Japanese yen in donations to the Japanese military from the proceeds of films screened in Taiwan about the Russo-Japanese War. By 1910, the Taiwan Colonial Government coordinated the efforts of independent filmmakers such as Takamatsu and others to establish a more organized approach to the production of film in the colony of Taiwan. Films played a vital role in enabling the larger colonial project of imperialization or cultural assimilation of Taiwanese subjects into the Japanese empire. The first silent film produced in Taiwan was An Introduction to the Actual Condition of Taiwan, a propaganda documentary that Takamatsu directed in 1907. Takamatsu noted that early films were produced mostly for Japanese audiences rather than for local Taiwanese. Hence, early films tended to be educational in nature, lauding Japan's modernizing presence on the island. Other films catered to Japanese audiences exotic desires for Taiwan as a place of adventure and danger such as Conquering Taiwan's Native Rebels (1910) and Heroes of the Taiwan Extermination Squad (1910).