10 great films set in Taipei

It’s estimated that over 40% of Taipei’s residents use a motorcycle for their daily commute, and – in Tsou Shih-ching’s freewheeling debut as solo director, Left-Handed Girl – 20-year-old betel nut seller I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) is part of the throng. She also ferries around her precocious five-year-old sister I-Jing (Nina Ye) who sees Taipei as one big playground. 

Even with Tsou’s emphasis on the inequalities facing young workers like I-Ann, it’s easy to share I-Jing’s wide-eyed perspective of the densely concentrated Taiwanese capital. Shooting nimbly on an iPhone, long-time Sean Baker collaborator Tsou vividly presents Taipei as a kaleidoscopic mix of gleaming skyscrapers, bustling markets and traditional temples.

There is a warm vitality to Left-Handed Girl which has not always been associated with cinematic depictions of Taipei. To the global arthouse crowd, discussion of Taipei’s screen topography inevitably centres on the New Taiwan Cinema movement, which chronicled the city’s transformation in an age of rapid economic development and cultural change. Its figureheads – Edward Yang, Hou Hsiao-hsien and the Malaysian-born Tsai Ming-liang – incorporated the sights, sounds, textures and shifting rhythms of Taipei life into their distinct sensibilities. Yang exposed its modern anxieties in Taipei Story (1985) and The Terrorizers (1986); Hou noted the listlessness of its young generation in Daughter of the Nile (1987) and Millennium Mambo (2001); and Tsai infused its capacity for alienation with absurdist humour in Rebels of the Neon God (1992) and The Hole (1998).

On the flipside, a brighter Taipei has emerged in various charming indies. Pinoy Sunday (2009) follows a pair of Filipino workers on an eventful day off, while Missing Johnny (2017) sees three lonely individuals coming together to find a missing parrot. Meanwhile, investment from the Taipei Film Commission resulted in a run of upbeat comedies: Taipei Exchanges (2010) takes place in a delightful café; Night Market Hero (2011) celebrates the capital’s street vendors; and When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep (2012) is set around its cram school district. There is still an edge to be found, though, as seen in the bruising crime dramas Monga (2010) and Locust (2024), which take place in some of Taipei’s oldest districts.

So, grab your helmet – it’s time to take a ride around Taipei.

Director: Ang Lee

The third entry in Ang Lee’s ‘Father Knows Best’ trilogy is a gentle comedy-drama that finds Taipei in transition with Western influences encroaching on traditional Chinese customs, particularly those pertaining to food and family. This theme is established when an opening shot of a heavily congested road crossing dissolves into a suburban home where widowed master chef Chu (Sihung Lung) is meticulously preparing a feast for the senses.

The mouth-watering banquet is for Chu’s daughters who reflect Taipei’s modernisation: Jia-chien (Wu Chien-lien) is investing in a real estate development dubbed “Little Paris in the East”; Jia-ning (Wang Yu-wen) has a part-time job at Wendy’s; and Jia-jen (Yang Kuei-mei) is a born-again Christian. Their strands occur in professional and leisure spaces, which are presented in an unfussy manner that conveys a practical acceptance of change, while also providing contrast with the family home which embodies the Confucian ideals that Zhu quietly strives to uphold.

Director: Tsai Ming-liang

The multitude of vacant properties caused by Taipei’s 1990s real estate boom provides the catalyst for Tsai Ming-liang’s rueful meditation on loneliness. Three solitary individuals – real estate agent May Lin (Yang Kuei-mei), funeral crypt salesman Hsiao-kang (Lee Kang-sheng) and street vendor Ah-jung (Chen Chao-jung) – unknowingly share the supposedly unoccupied upscale apartment that May Lin is trying to rent out. But doing so only provides temporary respite from their respective struggles with alienation.

As metaphor for Taipei, the stylish apartment highlights both its surface allure and inability to cultivate meaningful relationships. This superficiality is also illustrated by the initiation of a tryst between May Lin and Hsiao-kang in the transactional space of a food court. However, the most symbolically loaded location is Daan Forest Park. Constructed following the controversial removal of 12,000 squatters, it is where May Lin succumbs to despair for an extended climactic scene of uncontrollable sobbing.

Director: Chen Kuo-fu

Chen Kuo-fu’s keenly observed comedy of manners is light on Taipei landmarks, which is appropriate for a film in which the protagonist is concealing her identity. After breaking the glass ceiling in her medical career, Du Jia-zhen (Rene Liu) is taking an independent approach to finding a husband: she has placed a personal ad, but is using an alias to hide a profession that might prove intimidating to potential partners with patriarchal values.

The quiet teahouse that Du uses as her regular dating spot juxtaposes her modern outlook with traditional culture, while the parade of suitors provides a cross-section of Taipei society. Among them are a traditional singer; a restaurant manager with a shoe fetish; a flirtatious lesbian; and a sensitive writer accompanied by his mother. These amusingly awkward encounters are adroitly interspersed with reflective passages in which Du composes diary entries or surveys the cityscape when travelling home by bus.

Director: Edward Yang

“Daddy, I can’t see what you see, and you can’t see what I see.” As eight-year-old Yang-yang (Jonathan Chang) points out in Edward Yang’s intimate epic, everything in life is very much a matter of perspective. Yi Yi is an ensemble piece that follows members of the Jian family over the course of one year. Taken collectively, though, they represent different stages of the universal journey and how our perception of the world tends to depend on age.

The representation of Taipei in Yi Yi is intrinsically linked to this theme. Yang-yang’s father, N.J. (Wu Nien-jen), is stagnating within the business district, which represents the compromises and conformity that come with adulthood. But for the insatiably curious Yang-Yang, Taipei is a world of abundant promise. His photography hobby becomes a means of literally and metaphorically capturing what others cannot see, offering a receptive lens through which to view the grand scheme unfold.

Director: Hou Hsiao-hsien

Taipei is a city of hazily recalled memories in Millennium Mambo, with its heroine Vicky (Shu Qi) narrating events from the then-future of 2011. In an opening scene lasting two-and-half unbroken minutes, Vicky enigmatically walks in slow motion through the fluorescent pedestrian walkway of Zhongshan Bridge to the accompaniment of Lim Giong’s electronic pop song ‘A Pure Person’. This fusion of elements conveys Hou Hsiao-hsien’s theme of youthful ennui at the dawn of the 21st century in utterly mesmerising fashion.

There are two men in Vicky’s life: the possessive Hao-hao (Tuan Chun-hao) and the older, underworld-connected Jack (Jack Kao). But her most palpable relationship is with Taipei’s hedonistic nightlife. Mark Lee Ping-bing’s hypnotic cinematography initially captures the excitement of Vicky’s nocturnal existence. Yet his framing gradually reveals her to be an emotionally isolated individual trapped in a neon-soaked cycle of repetition, as emphasised by a soundtrack of increasingly soulless techno beats.

Director: Sylvia Chang

Sylvia Chang’s nuanced comedy-drama focuses on three generations of women: 20-year-old aspiring singer Xiao Jie (Angelica Lee); 30-year-old flight attendant Xiang Xiang (Rene Liu); and 40-year-old florist Lily (Chang). Each is introduced in the liminal space of Taipei International Airport before going their separate ways. Their ensuing ups and downs constitute a multifaceted portrait of female lifestyles in the contemporary capital.

Set around the city’s music scene, Xiao Jie’s strand highlights the challenge of finding one’s voice in a competitive environment. Xiang Xiang’s occupation underscores Taipei’s growing status as a global hub, while her romantic entanglements show how modernity comes with complications. If Lily’s flower shop signifies her preference for control, her post-divorce return to the dating scene sees her embracing chance. Although they are briefly linked by an earthquake, Chang’s decision to forgo contrived narrative intersections pays dividends in exploring the varied experiences of three women at markedly different junctures.

Director: Arvin Chen

Arvin Chen’s debut feature is an irresistibly breezy blend of romantic-comedy and crime caper wherein lovesick noodle shop worker Kai (Yao Chun-yao) is so desperate to travel to Paris to reunite with his girlfriend that he agrees to deliver a mysterious package for a neighbourhood mobster. Yet his ensuing nocturnal misadventures – not to mention the romantic attentions of bookstore employee Susie (Amber Kuo) – suggest that the magic Kai anticipates finding in Paris may actually be present in his home city.

There is certainly a French New Wave sensibility to Michael Fimognari’s vibrant cinematography, which simultaneously draws on the heightened aesthetic of 1950s Hollywood musicals. Within its plethora of influences, this whimsical concoction provides a guide to Taipei’s unassuming pleasures (from its open-all-hours book store to the night markets and adjacent back alleys) while humorously illustrating aspects of its local culture (characters observing rules about running on the subway even during a chase sequence).

Director: Luc Besson

Often utilised as a space for the negotiation of personal identity, Taipei’s transformative potential is pushed to the nth degree in Luc Besson’s preposterously enjoyable sci-fi thriller. Exchange student Lucy (Scarlett Johansson) is coerced by her shady boyfriend into delivering a briefcase containing four bags of a powerful new synthetic drug to a South Korean crime boss at the Regent Taipei. When she ingests a large quantity of the substance, Lucy rapidly develops incredible capabilities, including telepathy, telekinesis and mental time travel. 

In the kinetic opening montage, Besson positions the iconic skyscraper Taipei 101 as a symbol of human achievement that Lucy will soon surpass. A passive individual who has been unable to assimilate to a multicultural environment, Lucy’s agency grows in tandem with her enhanced perception of the city’s complex infrastructure. Vividly illustrated as a web of interconnected energy, Taipei’s intricacy enables Lucy to identify order within chaos.

Director: Chung Mong-hong

A lower-middle-class Taipei family is severely tested in Chung Mong-hong’s towering melodrama, which boldly tackles juvenile delinquency, economic pressure, suicide and the consequences of unconditional love.

The tribulations of the Chen family start when wayward younger son Ho (Wu Chien-ho) is an accomplice in a vicious assault. Ho’s resulting incarceration will have a seismic impact on his driving instructor father Wen (Chen Yi-wen), hairdresser mother Qin (Samantha Ko) and studious older brother Hao (Greg Hsu).

Chung (photographing under his Japanese pseudonym of Nagao Nakashima) employs striking contrasts in lighting to illustrate how each character oscillates between the bright and dark aspects of humanity. Moreover, he symbolically uses the spectacular vista of Qixing Mountain, which is not only the highest mountain in Taipei but also the highest (dormant) volcano in Taiwan. As a guilt-ridden Wen makes an anguished confession to his wife against this awe-inspiring backdrop, A Sun reaches its emotional peak.

Director: Rob Jabbaz

When does a metropolis become a truly cinematic city? When it’s been used as a location for a zombie apocalypse. In this relentlessly grotesque horror film by Canadian director Rob Jabbaz, Taipei’s pristine visage swiftly erodes when an emerging virus causes infected citizens to commit violent acts. Jim (Berant Zhu) and Kat (Regina Lei) are a young couple who find themselves separately fighting for survival amid the escalating carnage.

The city’s usually reliable public services are soon contaminated or corrupted. Its subway system morphs into an enclosed space of sheer panic for Kat when an infected man goes on a stabbing spree. She subsequently makes it to a hospital, only to encounter a disturbingly unethical virologist (Lan Wei-Hua). After fleeing to the outskirts, an infected Jim must rush back to the centre if he is to help Kat before the virus takes effect. Fortunately, he has a motorcycle…

Left-Handed Girl is in cinemas now and on Netflix from 28 November.