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“Bang Bang Formosa” is a movie about kinship and family, developed through the genre of an action comedy. This is a story of a girl from Shanghai - Tan Yan Fei - who travels to Taiwan on the Cross-Straits free travel policy, and gets involved in a kidnapping incident in southern Taiwan, and befriending retired policeman Peng. The two embark on an adventure taking them from south to north, ending with Peng regaining the affection of his estranged daughter, and Tan Yan Fei accidentally uncovering a previously unknown mystery of her life.
The concept of the film originated from the author’s work experience traveling between Taiwan and China, from his observations of how people from different places and languages interacted with each other with their own senses of humor. Through the guidance of the department professor, these concept and ideas evolved into a movie script of this particular genre. After a period of fund-raising and preparations, including the development of a successful cross-straits cooperation co-production model, the shooting began and completed smoothly with the movie being released simultaneously in both Taiwan and China.
The work illustrates the theme of "no matter where the place is, as long as there is affection, it can be called home". Through the exaggerated manifestation of a cross-straits kidnapping scenario, the movie cleverly builds up a fun, parallel narrative of the evolution of two pairs of father-daughter relationships. On the issue of subject matter, two films – “Midnight Runner” and “Rush Hour” – will be analyzed and compared; while with regards to genre, “Wasabi” and “Eat Drink Man Women” will serve as the case studies for discussion. Aside from the script, every aspect of the making of the film – the script-writing, the multiple dimensions of the various characters, the screenplay, the fund-raising, the post-production, the screening and release – will be subject to critical evaluation and analysis.
This work is the author''s first full length feature film, which took nearly four year from script to release. Many of the hard-won creative ideas and the experiences gained over the cross-straits film co-production will also be shared and discussed.
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