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ARCHIVE

8th(2006)



Malie

Joyce H. Cheng

  • Taiwan
  • 2005
  • 82min
  • 35mm
  • color

SYNOPSIS

Malie, the directorial debut of the famous Taiwanese actress Joyce H. Cheng, gives us a window into the struggles of a career woman who must straddle the gap between the old and new generations in contemporary Taiwan. While Taiwan¡¯s film industry may be in the doldrums, this woman filmmaker injects a new vitality into the scene. The day of a date, Malie is informed that her mother is critically ilil, but she fails to visit her mother before she dies. According to Chinese myth, spirits linger on earth for 7 days before their journey to heaven, and during this period Mother¡¯s spirit gets to worrying about her unstable daughter. Malie, who is stressed because of relations at work, her boyfriend, and her own family, quickly tires of mother¡¯s incessant preaching. After 7 days, however, when her mother¡¯s spirit is ready to leave, Malie eventually realizes the significance of her mother¡¯s existence. Malie pinpoints the moment of self-reflection in the middle of family tragedy. The reality of Taiwanese women is not so different from that of women here in Seoul. (Denise Hyuk-sang Lee)

PROGRAM NOTE

Malie, the directorial debut of the famous Taiwanese actress Joyce H. Cheng, gives us a window into the struggles of a career woman who must straddle the gap between the old and new generations in contemporary Taiwan. While Taiwan¡¯s film industry may be in the doldrums, this woman filmmaker injects a new vitality into the scene. The day of a date, Malie is informed that her mother is critically ilil, but she fails to visit her mother before she dies. According to Chinese myth, spirits linger on earth for 7 days before their journey to heaven, and during this period Mother¡¯s spirit gets to worrying about her unstable daughter. Malie, who is stressed because of relations at work, her boyfriend, and her own family, quickly tires of mother¡¯s incessant preaching. After 7 days, however, when her mother¡¯s spirit is ready to leave, Malie eventually realizes the significance of her mother¡¯s existence. Malie pinpoints the moment of self-reflection in the middle of family tragedy. The reality of Taiwanese women is not so different from that of women here in Seoul. (Denise Hyuk-sang Lee)

Director

  • Joyce H. ChengJoyce H. Cheng

    Joyce H. Cheng was a star actress during the 1980¡¯s with her roles in both Taiwanese cinema and television. She started acting in Taiwan at the age of sixteen and was catapulted into stardom soon after that in Taiwanese cinema and television. Her performance in The Township Savage won her the best actress award in the Panama Film Festival in 1982 and her role as the young lovesick daughter in Little Fugitive got her a Gold Horse Nomination in 1984. She was also nominated three times for Taiwan¡¯s Golden Bell Awards, Taiwan¡¯s equivalent to the Emmy Awards. In 2004, Joyce H. Cheng wrote an autobiography entitled What a Mess in My Life to tell the story of the first half of her life. Malie is her feature directorial debut film.

Credit

  • ProducerJoyce H. Cheng
  • Cast Vicky Chen, Joyce H. Cheng
  • Screenwriter Joyce H. Cheng, Henry Tsai, Essay Liu
  • Cinematography Shen Jui-yuan
  • Editor Chen Po-wen, Chen Hsiao-ching
  • Music John Lin, Eison