2025 Taipei Film Festival opening film 96 Minutes stars two Taipei Film Festival ambassadors Austin Lin and Vivian Sung Closing film Marching Boys, a passionate teen movie, has Taipei Film Festival Supernovas Rosen and Yu Jie-en as its leads
2025.05.02
Today, the 27th Taipei Film Festival unveils this year’s opening and closing films. Starring Austin Lin and Vivian Sung, the opening film, 96 Minutes, is director Huang Tzu-hsuan’s latest feature. It is such a surprising coincidence that Lin was the Taipei Fim Festival ambassador last year and Sung is the ambassador this year. In 96 Minutes, they play a detective couple; together with Wang Po-chieh and Lee Lee-zen, they not only race against time but compete against each other’s wit and strength in this thrilling disaster action movie. The closing film is Marching Boys, a passionate teen film directed by Ray Jiang, who is best known for the Gatao series. With two Supernovas Rosen and Yu Jie-en as well as the rising young actor Liu Yu-ren as its leads, Marching Boys shows how a youth marching band fights to pursue their dream on the big screen. In addition, Taipei Film Festival collaborates with Taiwan Asia Exchange Foundation on curating the “Southern Vision” category, in which five outstanding Southeast and South Asian films are selected to demonstrate the unique charm of Southeast Asian cinema.
The opening film, 96 Minutes, is the latest feature directed by Huang Tzu-hsuan, who won Taipei Film Award Best Visual Effects and Outstanding Artistic Contribution for The Scoundrels; the exquisite action choreography and the clever mise-en-scène make 96 Minutes another climax in Huang’s career. Starting from the script development, it took Huang eight years to complete the film. To make the scenes realistic, the crew built the first life-sized smart high-speed rail carriage sound stage in Taiwan with the virtual production technology imported from Hollywood, which cost more than three million US dollars. 96 Minutes tells the story of a bomb disposal expert (Austin Lin) boarding a non-stop high-speed train from Kaohsiung to Taipei with his newly wedded wife (Vivian Sung); during those critical 96 minutes, he is forced to defuse a bomb, and all the passengers’ lives depend on him and his wife. Starring Taipei Film Festival ambassadors Austin Lin and Vivian Sung as well as Lee Lee-zen, Wang Po-chieh, Yao Yi-ti, and Kent Tsai, 96 Minutes is an electrifying disaster action movie that opens Taipei Film Festival to an exciting start!
Marching Boys, the closing film, is the latest work by director Ray Jiang, whose Gatao series grossed over three million US dollars at the box-office in Taiwan. It took the scriptwriter Kelly Chen (Black & White) and the executive producer Wolf Chen (Listen before You Sing) six years to develop this project; together with Ray Jiang, they did the field research and raised the funding, putting so much effort into the production. Two Supernovas Rosen and Yu Jie-en as well as the rising young actor Liu Yu-ren play the high school students, who fight not only against the establishment but for the victory in the competition when facing the disbandment of their student club. A story of youthful passion and ambition, Marching Boys portrays how the adolescents discover themselves and struggle while growing up. The award-winning film composer Chris Hou served as music director on the production, interpreting the story with such unique music that it brings a passionate youth marching band to life.
The opening film, 96 Minutes, is the latest feature directed by Huang Tzu-hsuan, who won Taipei Film Award Best Visual Effects and Outstanding Artistic Contribution for The Scoundrels; the exquisite action choreography and the clever mise-en-scène make 96 Minutes another climax in Huang’s career. Starting from the script development, it took Huang eight years to complete the film. To make the scenes realistic, the crew built the first life-sized smart high-speed rail carriage sound stage in Taiwan with the virtual production technology imported from Hollywood, which cost more than three million US dollars. 96 Minutes tells the story of a bomb disposal expert (Austin Lin) boarding a non-stop high-speed train from Kaohsiung to Taipei with his newly wedded wife (Vivian Sung); during those critical 96 minutes, he is forced to defuse a bomb, and all the passengers’ lives depend on him and his wife. Starring Taipei Film Festival ambassadors Austin Lin and Vivian Sung as well as Lee Lee-zen, Wang Po-chieh, Yao Yi-ti, and Kent Tsai, 96 Minutes is an electrifying disaster action movie that opens Taipei Film Festival to an exciting start!
Marching Boys, the closing film, is the latest work by director Ray Jiang, whose Gatao series grossed over three million US dollars at the box-office in Taiwan. It took the scriptwriter Kelly Chen (Black & White) and the executive producer Wolf Chen (Listen before You Sing) six years to develop this project; together with Ray Jiang, they did the field research and raised the funding, putting so much effort into the production. Two Supernovas Rosen and Yu Jie-en as well as the rising young actor Liu Yu-ren play the high school students, who fight not only against the establishment but for the victory in the competition when facing the disbandment of their student club. A story of youthful passion and ambition, Marching Boys portrays how the adolescents discover themselves and struggle while growing up. The award-winning film composer Chris Hou served as music director on the production, interpreting the story with such unique music that it brings a passionate youth marching band to life.
96 Minutes
Marching Boys
The 27th Taipei Film Festival will be held between June 20 and July 5, 2025, at Taipei Zhongshan Hall, Vie Show Cinema Taipei Hsin Yi, and SPOT-Huashan Cinema. The program and events will be announced in batches, and the Taipei Film Award and the International New Talent Competition nominees will be unveiled respectively on May 15 and mid-May. For more details, please go to Taipei Film Festival official website: https://www.taipeiff.taipei/tw/.