Yang Li-kuo’s ‘The Dull-Ice Flower’ Set for U.S.-U.K. Release as London-Based Distributor Radiance Films Picks Up Eight Taiwanese Classics — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- Radiance Films acquired eight Taiwanese classics from TFAI for theatrical and home entertainment releases in 2027, with the deal unveiled Thursday at Lyon's International Classic Film Market (MIFC).
- The package includes Hou Hsiao-hsien's "A Time to Live and a Time to Die" (1985) and "Dust in the Wind" (1986); Tsai Ming-liang's "Rebels of the Neon God" (1992), "Vive L'Amour" (1994) and "The River" (1997); the New Wave anthology "In Our Time" (1982); Chang Yi's "Kuei-Mei, a Woman" (1985); and Yang Li-kuo's "The Dull-Ice Flower" (1989).
- "The Dull-Ice Flower" is the sole title getting both U.K. and U.S. release; the other seven are U.K.-only, with Radiance planning both a Taiwanese New Wave set and a trio of Tsai Ming-liang films.
- Radiance founder Francesco Simeoni first contacted TFAI at this year's Berlin Film Festival after earlier failed attempts to license titles from Taiwan's Central Motion Picture Corporation; the deal crystallized at Cannes after he saw "The Dull-Ice Flower" screen in Cannes Classics.
- TFAI has restored 110 titles since 2013 and now completes roughly a dozen restorations annually, with chair Arthur Chu noting that A-list filmmakers serve as a "springboard" for festival engagement while the institute increasingly turns attention to lesser-known films.
- The acquisitions coincide with the 70th anniversary of Taiwanese-language cinema, but only about 200 of the more than 1,200 films produced between the mid-1950s and late-1970s are believed to survive — works long overshadowed by Mandarin-language productions promoted under Nationalist rule.
Why it matters: For decades, classic Taiwanese cinema from Hou Hsiao-hsien and Tsai Ming-liang has been largely unavailable in Anglophone markets. Radiance's 2027 slate puts eight restored titles into commercial U.K. distribution — and Yang Li-kuo's "The Dull-Ice Flower" into U.S. theaters — while the survival crisis (only ~200 of 1,200+ Taiwanese-language films survive) shows how much of this heritage has already been lost.
Ask SkimNews
