View the trailer.
A gorgeous bird’s-eye view of Taiwan’s stunning natural landscape, this film set box office records in Taiwan and won the Best Documentary Award at the 2013 Golden Horse Awards. It proves why the Portuguese explorers who landed on the island in the 1500s immediately named it ilha formosa (beautiful island). But its wonderful aerial photography also carries a message about how that landscape is being mistreated. The beauty of Taiwan’s untouched areas is contrasted with images of mountainsides eroded by development and large-scale farming and coastlines polluted by industry.
As director Chi Po-lin says, “I am not here to judge, because I understand there is a price to pay to live the way we do right now. But each of us must stop pretending that all this destruction is not happening.” (Dir.: Chi Po-li, Taiwan, 2013, 93 min., D-cinema, Mandarin with English subtitles)
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