"They think we eat this, so they feed us this" — one short sentence. You might think we're discussing Taiwan's local dramas, but we're not. We're talking about the films being screened at Penghu's movie theater.
"Can you vote for 'The Greatest Showman,' 'Vincent van Gogh,' and 'Crosscurrents'?" I received a message like this this morning. At first I didn't catch on, thinking it was another canned voting message. But after reading it carefully, I realized it was about #PenghuMovieTheater.
"Penghu's movie theater has few screens, so it's usually filled with the most mainstream domestic films and Hollywood blockbusters, making it difficult for non-mainstream films to be shown." Penghu currently has only one cinema: #Zhongxing Cinema, a long-established theater that has been operating for over twenty years and holds many fond memories for local residents.
Zhongxing Cinema has warmth and character, but with only four screens total, the theater must decide which films to show based on revenue considerations. Naturally, the screens are filled according to how popular films are on Taiwan's main island. Over time, what gets replaced are small, quality films. Penghu residents who want to watch domestic films have no options. Perhaps they can only wait for television broadcasts, but that might be months later.
An in89 Penghu Luxury Cinema, opening February 14th, has specially launched an online vote inviting Penghu residents to vote for films of "missed opportunities." The campaign is on their Facebook page until February 8th. The highest vote count so far is 83 people — yet Penghu has a population of 100,000. The sample size really isn't enough. But fortunately, the top three films — 'Bloodywood,' 'The Great Buddha+,' and 'The Greatest Showman' — will still be re-released as planned :)
#Non-mainstream films — can they only lose the chance to play on big screens like this? Or will distributors, considering the insufficient sample size, still decide to show "popular movies," causing films that originally had opportunity and market demand to be buried again?
This voting list of films includes titles like 'Along with the Gods,' 'Coco,' 'Convenience Store Woman,' 'The Greatest Showman,' 'Crosscurrents,' 'Bloodywood,' 'Happiness Road,' 'A Taxi Driver,' and more — films that were all shown on Taiwan's main island. We're all citizens of the same country, yet the right to watch and enjoy movies is easily stripped away. Can you accept this? Do offshore islanders deserve such disparate treatment? Do they really have to fly to Taiwan's main island just to watch a movie?
