Banana Paradise

The screening on 8 November will be introduced by Tom Cunliffe (UCL). New restoration.

Banana Paradise (1989) is the second chapter in Wang Toon’s celebrated ‘Modern Taiwan Trilogy’, along with Strawman (1987) and Hill of No Return (1992), which traces the lives of ordinary Taiwanese through the upheavals of Japanese colonial rule and the early Kuomintang era.

Tempted by tales of sweet bananas, a naïve young man follows the Kuomintang forces from China to Taiwan in 1949. He adopts false names and adjusts to life in Taiwan amidst turbulent socio-economic changes. Banana Paradise addresses the cruelties of martial law as a tragicomic melodrama, rural-urban migration, and the demands of modernisation. Director Wang Tong was a veteran in set design for directors including King Hu, Li Hsing and Pai Jing-jui before making his feature film debut in 1981. His works can be situated between the generational shift, combining sentimentality with socio-political critique.

Cast:
Doze Niu Chen-Zer, Chang Shih, Wen Ying

Please arrive promptly - we do not show adverts.

Part of Made in Taiwan Wang Toon, Taiwan, 1989, 145m.