Tenth edition of touring film festival JFF focuses on Taiwanese movies

In its 10th edition, the festival will feature four Taiwanese movies of different genres.

Two of the films -- 'Missing Johnny' and 'Han Dan' -- will be screened at Delhi's Siri Fort Auditorium (on July 20 and 21, respectively).

Both will have English subtitles.

The 104-minute-long Missing Johnny is a romantic film, which won four awards in the Taipei Film Awards in the year of its release, 2017.

Missing Johnny is a portrayal of three people - a young woman intrigued by a series of wrong phone calls, a young man disturbed by whatever happens around him, and a wandering foreman feeling lost by the breakdown of his beloved car- living in modern time Taipei City.

It carefully shows how these three people’s lives cross paths and in which ways their solitude gradually unravel.

Veteran Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien is the executive producer of Missing Johnny.

The more-than-two-hour-long Han Dan is a commercially successful drama fiction released in January this year, grossing around NT$50 million (roughly equivalent to Rs.10 crore) at the box office.

Han Dan is based on a traditional religious practice seen in rural Taiwan, where people believe anyone who endures all the explosion of firecrackers by playing the role of deity Han Dan will be given protection and blessings.

Starting with a friendship between two young men, the movie goes to find a secret that is related to one of the two men's painful experience years ago.

Ambassador Chung-kwang Tien, Representative of Taipei Economic and Cultural Center in India, said he is delighted to see Taiwanese movies participate in one of the world's grandest film events, thus showcasing Taiwan's cultural power.

"Movies are the best contact lenses for people to learn about foreign countries. No significant relationship can stand without strong cultural relationship," Ambassador Tien said.

"With Han Dan, Missing Johnny and other Taiwanese movies brought to the India audience, I am sure India will get to know Taiwan more, which in turn will help grow the relationship between our two countries deeper and more diversified," he said.

Date and venue for the screening of the other two Taiwanese films, 'Breast and House' and 'Bad Boy Symphony' will be notified later by the organisers.

The Jagran Film Festival is organized by Dainik Jagran, a popular news daily published in Hindi language.

After Delhi, the festival will travel through Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh before concluding its journey in Maharashtra in late September this year..