Movies in Kaohsiung~

    This week, many classmates posted something about movies, so I want to be up-to-date. This week, let's talk about movies in Kaohsiung. Have you come up with some movies taken in Kaohsiung? I will introduce movies about Kaohsiung in the following.

Kaohsiung Film Archive

    Kaohsiung Film Archive(KFA) is located by the Love River in a beautiful image building. It unfolds a new page to the cinematic history of Kaohsiung. For a long time, there were few facilities relating to the cinema in southern Taiwan. All activities held by the film industry were centered in northern Taiwan. In order to facilitate cultural development, to promote the film industry and to bring the audience in southern Taiwan more diversified visions. Finally, the eye-catching Kaohsiung Film Archive was established in 2002, becoming a cultural icon along the beautiful Love River.

    You can always find movies you like in KFA. It will play different types of movies everyday,and you can see the program list on its website. Learn more on KFA website.

http://kfa.kcg.gov.tw/

Kaohsiung Film Festival(2013.10.18~11.3, Visit Now~!!!)

    Since 2001, Kaohsiung Film Festival(KFF) has held more than a decade. Through KFF, we can learn the society and reflect on our deeds.

    The annual theme of KFF always view peculiar phenomenon of contemporary Taiwan society with an alternative point. In 2013, Taiwanese is discontent with the current government, feeling the society implies an indignant force, and protests on the streets began singing “Les Misérables”(悲慘世界) chorus song "Do You Hear the People Sing?". Music is not just a healing force but also a counterattack on the current social discontent. In the movies, we feel the power of music, not just one kind of healing but also a means of complaint. So, try to imagine from the Variations(變奏曲), a disorderly metaphor of modulation Taiwan society currently, a topic named " Variations Nation(變奏國度)".

    KFF2013 offers an alternative, atypical dance and music movies. In the heart-turbulent era, full of joy musicals can have people temporarily say goodbye to the haze of political panic. We use music to inspire people to go through the worst of times.
Learn more on KFF official website.
http://www.kff.tw/home03.aspx?ID=3

Movies taken in Kaohsiung

    The movies I like taken in Kaohsiung are <GF*BF>《女朋友．男朋友》 and <Silent Code>《BBS鄉民的正義》, especially  <I Can't Live Without You>《不能沒有你》. 

    <I Can't Live Without You>[2009] is a TRUE story[2003] concerning a Kaohsiung poor dock worker fighting to reclaim the custody of his seven-year-old girl. Unsuccessful and clinging to the faithful daughter, he threatens to jump off a bridge. As the film progresses, the father gets embroiled in bureaucratic red tape and does all he can in order to get his daughter back from the government institutional care.

    Even seeing the film again, I still felt deeply touched. Through the lens, we can learn the almost forgotten tragic corner in the society with a very realistic point of view parallel to shoot this father and daughter brutally dismantled by the public sector! Without much rendering lens but full of empathy, Director Dai(戴立忍) allow the audience to identify what is called "parental love." The stamina is really strong, really let the audience, including me, reflect that our indifference and silently watching the tragedy is usually a accomplice of the social new!!!

See the <I Can't Live Without You> on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FspZra-wqZE&list=PLC021910F62157197

Public Controversy Now in Kaohsiung!!!

    As a city, what is the most important thing standing for it? Thinking of Taipei city, you will find some imagery flashing into your mind. Perhaps it may be Taipei 101, CKS Memorial Hall or Longshan Temple. But, you'll never skip the Taipei Maim Station, which represents the hustle and bustle of Taipei. By the same token, Kaohsiung Main Station is also important to Kaohsiung city. Now, there are some controversies about the Kaohsiung Main Station among the public in Kaohsiung. You'll find more details in the following.

Background Knowledge

    Kaohsiung Main Station was first built in 1941 in the Japanese-Occupied Period(JOP). If you take a view of the building particularly, you will find it just like "高". Compared with most stations in Taiwan built in the JOP, Kaohsiung Main Station has a significantly different appearance because it is the last station finished in the JOP. It has a imperial(帝冠式) appearance; meanwhile, it was built in the Chinese-Western fusion style. It went through WARII, 228 Incident and Kaohsiung Incident(美麗島事件), witnessing the 60-year history of Kaohsiung.

    In 1991, to cooperate to the urban regeneration, the Station is carefully moved about 85m from its original site temporarily. It spent 16 days and approximately one hundred million dollars to completed the preservation and moving of the imperial Station. It moved 1cm per minute.
    Even CNN and NHK come to Kaohsiung to report the news.

    At the same time, the temporary Kaohsiung Main Station was constructed with the conception of the airport terminal.

The site of each building.

What's the controversy?

    As the Railway Underground Project goes on, it gives rise to much discussion that whether to use the original Station for the new gate. The place will be a business zone in the future, and therefore the Kaohsiung Main Station will be "squeezed" between two commercial tower if it is moved back to its original site. (Moving the Station back is the plan of the government.)

Discussion

    The public in Kaohsiung ask the government to revise its plan and hold the public hearing simultaneously. People think we should pay respect to an historical site. The Kaohsiung Main Station carries too much common memories of Kaohsiung people. Moving the station back without a comprehensive reflection shows no respect and goes against the expectation of the public. The future of a city should not be decided by few designers,but all the citizens. They also want to show the city&local culture, refusing to just become much more commercialize.

By the way, after the public make their requests, Kaohsiung City Government decided to hold several public hearings.(And it was held in KSHS.[雄中]~)

    Here are some simulation videos of the Kaohsiung Main Station.

    Talk about how you think of it~. You can get more information on Google and Youtube(the public hearing) by the keywords "高雄火車站論壇".

More...( The definition of a city by a poet)

The Great City
by Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

The place where a great city stands is not the place of stretch'd wharves, docks, manufactures, deposits of produce merely,
Nor the place of ceaseless salutes of new-comers or the anchor-lifters of the departing,
Nor the place of the tallest and costliest buildings or shops selling goods from the rest of the earth,
Nor the place of the best libraries and schools, nor the place where money is plentiest,
Nor the place of the most numerous population.

Where the city stands with the brawniest breed of orators and bards,
Where the city stands that is belov'd by these, and loves them in return and understands them,
Where no monuments exist to heroes but in the common words and deeds,
Where thrift is in its place, and prudence is in its place,
Where the men and women think lightly of the laws,
Where the slave ceases, and the master of slaves ceases,
Where the populace rise at once against the never-ending audacity of elected persons,
Where fierce men and women pour forth as the sea to the whistle of death pours its sweeping and unript waves,

Where outside authority enters always after the precedence of inside authority,
Where the citizen is always the head and ideal, and President, Mayor, Governor and what not, are agents for pay,
Where children are taught to be laws to themselves, and to depend on themselves,
Where equanimity is illustrated in affairs,
Where speculations on the soul are encouraged,
Where women walk in public processions in the streets the same as the men,
Where they enter the public assembly and take places the same as the men;
Where the city of the faithfulest friends stands,
Where the city of the cleanliness of the sexes stands,
Where the city of the healthiest fathers stands,
Where the city of the best-bodied mothers stands,
There the great city stands.

My Thought

    Every time when I search the information of my blog work, I am not only just finished my homework but also help myself re-recognize my hometown again. Sometimes, I would learn what I never knew. But what the work gives me most is the sickness...that is "homesick." Haha~

Quack!! Giant rubber duck makes waves in Kaohsiung.

    Recently, what's the common ground about the Facebook news feed of your Kaohsiung friend? Yes, you got it. The answer is the "Rubber duck." The "Rubber’ Duck" is traveling the world and will be floated on the waters of Kaohsiung Harbor from September 19 to October 20. I will tell you more about it in the following.

Rubber Duck

Designer: Florentijn Hofman,Dutch artist.


Conception: Florentijn Hofman tries to entertain the world by a tour named "Spreading joy around the world" established in 2007. He aimed to recall everyone's childhood memories by exhibiting the duck in cities, starting in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Display: Since 2007, the ducks have been on display in 15 cities. By the way, the Duck in Kaohsiung is  different from that in Hong Kong. Taiwan's Rubber Duck, a newly built one(Made in Taiwan), is the largest to be displayed in Asia.

The Duck Storm in Kaohsiung

    Kaohsiung is the first leg of Rubber Duck's migration around Taiwan, which will see it nest in Taoyuan, Taichung and Keelung in the north.

   On Sept. 19, some 200,000 spectators flocked to Kaohsiung's harbor for a peep at the world-famous Rubber Duck sculpture, despite the threat of an approaching typhoon.

    

    The businessman is as bright as a button. A lots of peripheral commodity such as Macaron and dessert can be purchase as the Duckie storm hits Kohsiung.

Why is Duckie so popular?

    "It keeps on smiling to you, you know. It says, 'don't you worry, laugh, be happy!'" Hofman said. "This big rubber duck in your harbor, in Kaohsiung in this case, changes Kaohsiung. And it changes also your fantasy and your brain. And it's a piece of art."

More

    A video about the Duckie swimming into Kaohsiung Harbor.

    

Kaohsiung Incredible

View of Kaohsiung from the light house on Cijin Island

    When it comes to Kaohsiung, what’s the first thing flashing into your mind? A city with warm taste? Of course it is, but Kaohsiung is a city with warm taste. I will inform you of Kaohsiung you have never learned. Picturesque scenic spot, historical stories, folklore or special food will show you every week in turns.

    This week, I will give you some background of Kaohsiung.

Location

    Located in the southern part of Taiwan, Kaohsiung city is the island's largest industrial center. It is by area the largest municipality, at 2,947.62 km2, and second most populous (by urban area) with a population of approximately 2.77 million.

Administrative Divisions of Kaohsiung

Kaohsiung city seal

History

    Japanese exerted a profound influence on Kaohsiung city. Kaohsiung is a untapped gem. It was during the Japanese-Occupied Period that Kaohsiung city changed to the name we know now. "Kaohsiung" is derived from aboriginal language, "Takau"(打狗), which translates as "bamboo forest." Japanese people used Kanji(漢字) to keep the pronouncement and wish Kaohsiung become a "High Hero" at the same time.

    Today, It has stayed abreast of Taiwan's recent progress and prosperity; expanding and modernizing, the city strides into the 21st century as a newly emerging international metropolis.

More

    Kaohsiung has rich resources of the ocean, mountains and forests, take shape a diverse combination and different communities, the formation of a very active and multi-faceted nature of art and culture in the streets of Kaohsiung, everywhere you can see the beauty and grace of its public infrastructure, public art and city architecture.

Montage of Kaohsiung

    Finally, you must want to feel Kaohsiung by yourself. I find a heart-touching video. Hope you will be deeply touched by it.

    Bonus for Mayday fans~

    

    Just comment if you like it. Tell me which part you are interested in!