Wang Tung’s relationship to Taiwan’s New Wave is more tangential: like many others firmly footed in the industry (Wang is among Taiwan’s greatest production designers), he surfed the zeitgeist gladly, seeing it as an invitation for experimentation with moods and textures. What makes Run Away special is the genre: it’s a martial arts movie (with very little fighting and a lot of paranoid waiting and brooding).
Bandits hold a village to ransom, demanding more grain or they will kill a young woman. The bandits are attacked by government troops, their leader is caught and executed. The gang now needs a new boss, and several consider themselves suitable… Wang’s down-to-earth view of human strife and foibles does not yet have that edge of robustness that will characterize his grandest achievement, a trilogy on twentieth-century Taiwanese history; instead, very much in the spirit of the day, he calmly contemplates fate.
The 25 January session will feature a post-screening discussion with Olaf Möller.
Film details
- Country of production
- Taiwan
- Year
- 1984
- Festival edition
- IFFR 2015
- Length
- 115'
- Medium/Format
- 35mm
