Taiwan’s growing reputation as a favourable filming spot

TAIPEI — Not many people can claim to have travelled with acclaimed French film director Luc Besson in a secret elevator. But for Jennifer Jao, head of the Taipei Film Commission, it was just another day on the job.

Jao, who has led the commission for eight years, is arguably one of Taiwan’s best ambassadors, despite not being a diplomat. Tasked with raising the island’s global profile by attracting international film directors to make their movies there, she has enjoyed considerable success.

On that day when she accompanied Besson and his producer-wife, Virginie Silla, in an elevator to the mayor’s office in Taipei City Hall, the director was covertly scouting locations for his sci-fi thriller, Lucy, starring Scarlett Johansson.

Jao had promised the couple the highest degree of privacy. “The car drove to the basement of the city government. We have the secret elevator, directly to the mayor’s office. It’s like a spy movie,” she said. “Nobody knew that there was a big movie director coming to Taipei, just the mayor.”

Her strategy worked. Besson opted to film in Taipei over seven other Asian cities, including Beijing, Seoul and Bangkok, and the film was a box-office hit, grossing over US$463 million (S$654.8 million).

Long overshadowed by its regional neighbours Japan, Hong Kong and South Korea, the small island of 23 million is now emerging as a favoured Asian hub for some of cinema’s biggest names.

FILM-MAKERS’ HOT SPOT

Blessed with dramatic mountainous and coastal scenery within sight of the skyscrapers of the bustling capital, Taipei, Taiwan offers both a wide variety of locations and a subsidy of up to US$1 million for film-makers who meet certain conditions.

Its rise on the international movie circuit is also thanks to a combination of professional local film crews and a concerted effort by the authorities to assist foreign directors with paperwork and help in finding accommodation and transport.

Taiwan-born American film director Ang Lee helped to forge Taiwan’s reputation as a favourable filming location when he shot much of 2012 survival drama film, Life of Pi, at Taipei Zoo, the coastal city of Taichung, Kenting National Park and Pingtung county, in the south.

Lee acknowledged that he could not have made the hit film “without the help of Taiwan” in his acceptance speech after winning the Oscar for best director in 2013.

In the same year, after networking with producers at the Cannes Film Festival in France, Jao compounded Taiwan’s standing in Hollywood by clinching the deal with Besson’s Europacorp to film much of Lucy in Taipei.

The film, which sees the lead character Johansson gain superhuman powers after accidentally absorbing a nootropic drug into her bloodstream, was partly shot at Taipei 101, one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers.

While promoting the film, Besson described Taipei as “very photogenic”. He also developed a love for the tasty dumplings at the famous Din Tai Fung restaurant.

The success of Lucy led to another big blockbuster opportunity for Taiwan when American director Martin Scorsese mentioned to Besson that he was looking for a location to shoot his new movie, Silence, the story of two 17th-century priests who are persecuted in Japan.

“Martin asked (Besson) about Lucy’s success and talked about his new project,” said Jao. “He couldn’t find a suitable place for the film because going to Japan would cost a lot of money. Luc strongly suggested they go to Taipei.”

The movie, which stars Liam Neeson, Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver, was filmed around Taiwan in 2015, and is due to be released later this year.

Producer Irwin Winkler praised Taiwan for having “great, great locations” and “very cheap” prices.

WIN-WIN SITUATION

Taiwan profited in other ways, too. About 300 local staff were hired to work on the film, and production boosted the local economy by millions.

It was a particular coup for the Taipei Film Commission (TFC), which helps with the production of an average of 650 foreign and local films, TV shows, music videos and commercials a year.

But the Taiwanese film industry has not always been so successful. The TFC was born out of the disappointment of missing the opportunity to host the filming of Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible 3 in 2006.

Cruise’s producer had visited Taiwan to negotiate filming in Taipei 101, but was presented with so many obstacles that the frustrated film crew shifted the location to Shanghai in China.

“We missed the chance to let our film-makers have the chance to learn, and to cooperate with Tom Cruise, and we lost money,” said Jao. In 2007, she was asked to form the TFC as a one-stop shop for foreign film-makers.

The commission works in tandem with the central government’s culture department, which helps to coordinate film production across the country. It offers additional subsidies to foreign film-makers who choose to shoot in Taiwan.

“The special thing about Taiwan is that you can go to a variety of good spots in a very short space of time, from the top of the mountains to the coast. This is not imaginable in other countries,” said Shirley Yang, director of the motion pictures division.

Despite recent successes, young local film-makers such as Cheng Kuang-yu, who produced The Day to Choose, a 23-minute film about the death penalty, believes much still has to be done to promote Taiwan’s potential.

“Film-makers don’t know much about Taiwan. This is Taiwan’s problem. We don’t have enough international exposure,” he said.

“Taiwan is a very liberal place. There are no political issues in terms of film-making here. We have high quality technicians, and it’s cheap.”

If their efforts are anything to go by, plenty more film-makers will soon hear about that.