When Taiwanese cinema is discussed internationally, it is most often in terms of Taiwan New Cinema and, in particular, its impressive use of realism. However, around ten years after its peak, domestic film-making had hit rock bottom. An overemphasis on aesthetic concerns and looser narrative structures resulted in lesser dramatic impact that increasingly distanced the films from audiences. In more recent years, Taiwanese cinema has begun to return to the territories of genre conventions, striving to innovate and re-enter commercial film-making. However, during the transitional phase between the two approaches, a number of films sought to balance creative and commercial considerations and in doing so, produced some unexpected films that blended realism, illusion and imagination, and even states of insanity, to great effect. The stories are often located in the island’s coastal limits, hinterlands or virtual spaces. These films delighted in exploring the uncertainties and liminal spaces between reality and imagination, and often dream-states, sometimes even through the evocation of ghosts and gods in the fabric of everyday life. This program aims to immerse international audiences in the ambiguous charms, the madness and uncertainty, and the stylistically intense beauty of the Taiwanese films of this period; those that transitioned the magical spaces between the realism of New Cinema and the high concept approaches to commercial genre films.