Taiwan Movie Theatre - It Takes Two to Tango
Date: Thursday, December 12, 2019
Time: 1 pm
Venue: Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Centre (8853 Selkirk Street, Vancouver)
Tel: 604-267-0901
Free admission
It Takes Two to Tango
2014∣102min∣Color∣Fiction∣Mandarin, Taiwanese
Chinese Mainlander ZHAO travels from Beijing to Taiwan to pursue Shin-yi, the love of his life. However, due to the historical turmoil between Taiwan and Mainland China, Shin-yi’s family refuses to let ZHAO marry her. As Shin-yi’s pregnancy comes to light, ZHAO’s parents travel to Taiwan to salvage the situation. The two cultures clash, culminating in many hilarious moments of fiery confrontation. Just when all hope seems lost, the two families’ grandfathers seem to find common ground for them all.
It Takes Two To Tango represents a tour de force for WAN after a more than ten-year absence from the big screen. The film’s original title, Kua Hai Tiao Tango (Crossing the Sea to Tango), alludes to the back-and-forth wedding negotiations between two families, much like dancing the tango. The three generations of the bride and groom’s families also represent the different historical perspectives of the three generations.
2015 Hong Kong International Film Festival
2015 Singapore Film Festival
Director
WAN Jen
One of the most influential directors in Taiwan’s New Wave Cinema of the 1980s, he made his debut, The Taste of Apple, in the landmark work The Sandwich Man (1983) with HOU Hsiao-hsien and ZENG Chuang-hsiang. WAN has consistently explored Taiwan’s social problems and political issues. His work has always been politically sensitive and critical of the impacts of industrialization and political corruption, and has been powerful in challenging how the past is presented and whose story is told.
