Taiwan and South Korea ink agreement on cinematic cooperation

台韓簽署電影合作備忘錄

The Taiwan Film Institute and Korean Film Archive have worked on film restoration over the years


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Film Institute (TFI) has inked an agreement on film preservation and cinematic exchanges with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA).

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will take long-term mutual collaboration and exchanges on film restoration, research, and promotion between the two film institutes to the next level, said TFI via a statement on Tuesday (May 28).

The two institutes will work on the preservation of film archives, film restoration, exchanges of talent and cinematic techniques, curation of film screenings, and publishing of academic research on cinema, among several other issues, the statement said.

The MoU was signed on Tuesday by TFI Director Chen Pin-chuan (陳斌全), who led a team to Seoul, and KOFA Director Joo Jinsook. After the signing ceremony, KOFA held a special screening of the film, “Raining in the Mountain,” to highlight Taiwan-South Korean collaboration on film restoration.

The production of “Raining in the Mountain” in the 1970s marked a milestone for international cooperation in Asia. Four decades later, the restoration of the film once again demonstrates an outstanding example of collaboration between Asian film institutes, declared the TFI statement.

The 1979 drama, directed by Taiwanese filmmaker King Hu (胡金銓), was shot primarily in South Korea. In 2017, KOFA helped to acquire samples of the original copy for TFI to restore the film.

Both TFI and KOFA are members of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) and the Southeast Asia-Pacific Audiovisual Archive Association (SEAPAVAA). The two institutes have had substantial exchanges over the years based on reciprocity, said TFI.