The Palace on the Sea
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In 1999, a luxurious floating restaurant sailed from Hong Kong to the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. When the Asian financial crisis forced the restaurant to close its doors, it became an abandoned ship chained to the dock. Here, a ghost of a Burmese woman, San-Mei, is trapped in this foreign land wit...(Read more)
In 1999, a luxurious floating restaurant sailed from Hong Kong to the port of Kaohsiung in Taiwan. When the Asian financial crisis forced the restaurant to close its doors, it became an abandoned ship chained to the dock. Here, a ghost of a Burmese woman, San-Mei, is trapped in this foreign land with her memories of the past, and unable to return home. As the serene chanting of Buddhist sutras fills the ship, the lover from her past life, now a Buddhist monk, helps guide her home.
Unlike Midi Z’s previous realist works, The Palace on the Sea is an experimental short film with a streak of French filmmaker Alain RESNAIS’ recurrent theme of troubled memories. Midi Z takes his most familiar subject of the Burmese diaspora and turns it into a fantasy romance drifting between life and death. It is a poignant juxtaposition reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia MÁRQUEZ, suggesting that what appears magical is our reality.
DVD source：Taiwan Cinema Toolkit, Ministry of Culture, R.O.C.
| Chinese title： | 海上皇宮 |
| Year： | 2014 |
| Director： | Midi Z |
| Duration： | 16 min |
| Length： | Feature |
| Category： | Fiction |
| Genre： | Drama |
| Theme： | Society |
| Color： | Color |
| Format： | DVD |
| Sound： | Stereo |
| Language： | Mandarin, Yunnan dialect |
| Subtitle： | Chinese, English |
| Producer： | WANG Shin-Hong |
| Actors： | WU Ke-Xi, WANG Shin-Hong |
| Screenplay： | Midi Z |
Camera： |
FAN Sheng-Xiang |
| Editor： | LIN Sheng-Wen |
| Excluded for public screenings： | Japan |
| Royalty period： | Jun. 1, 2017 - May 31, 2020 |
| Licensing contact： | This film is for non-profit screenings only. Regarding conditions for screening, please contact Taiwan FilmInstitute: toolkit@mail.tfi.org.tw For commercial licensing, please contact Seashore ImageProductions: grussytw@gmail.com |
| Festival list： | 2014 Taipei Film Festival 2014 International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014 Hong Kong International Film Festival 2014 Kaohsiung Film Festival |
