As part of a UK and European film tour on Taiwan's Lost Commercial Cinema: Recovered and Restored, the University of Nottingham's Taiwan Studies Programme in association with King's College London, Ministry of Culture, Taiwan, Taiwan Film Institute and the Broadway Cinema is pleased to jointly host a film on 20 October 2017.
Brothers Wang and Liu Tour Taiwan (王哥柳哥遊台灣) (Director. Li Xing, Taiwan, 1958, Taiwanese with English subtitles, 155 minutes)
Tubby shoeshine man Brother Wang (Li Guanzhang) shares a room with his best friend, rickshaw driver Brother Liu (Shorty Cai). A fortune teller predicts Wang will strike it rich in three days, but Liu will die in 44 days. When Wang wins the lottery three days later, their celebrations turn sour when they remember the other half of the prediction. Wang decides his buddy should have the trip of a lifetime before he dies, and they set off around their beautiful homeland, the island of Taiwan. The naïve working-class men experience a lifestyle of luxury for the first time and fall into many a muddle. Eventually, they return to Taipei, where Liu prepares to spend his final moments with his girlfriend, A-hua (Ke Yuxia).
With an Introduction and Q&A session by Professor Chris Berry.
Chris Berry, Professor of Film Studies at King's College London, and his academic research is grounded in work on Chinese-language cinemas. Primary publications include: (with Mary Farquhar) Cinema and the National: China on Screen (Columbia University Press and Hong Kong University Press, 2006); Postsocialist Cinema in Post-Mao China: the Cultural Revolution after the Cultural Revolution (New York: Routledge, 2004); (co-edited with Luke Robinson) Chinese Film Festivals: Sites of Translation (Palgrave Macmillan, 2017); (co-edited with Koichi Iwabuchi and Eva Tsai) Routledge Handbook of East Asian Popular Culture (Routledge, 2016); (edited with Nicola Liscutin and Jonathan D. Mackintosh), Cultural Studies and Cultural Industries in Northeast Asia: What a Difference a Region Makes (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2009); and (co-edited with Feii Lu) Island on the Edge: Taiwan New Cinema and After (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2005).
This event free to the public and all are welcome. However, booking online through the Broadway Cinema website and getting your free tickets at the Broadway box office is essential.