Chen Wen-min

Chen, Wen-min was born in Sanchong District in Taiwan.[2][3][4] When she was little, she asked her parents[5] to let her study Japanese and arithmetic in the public school set up by the Japanese colonial government.[3] At the age of 15, she got to know some Chinese novels like Legend of the General Who Never Was, General Father General Son (薛丁山征西), and Romance of Southern Tang (南唐演義), leading to her passion for being a director.[3] In 1940, before she became a director, she and her husband set up KuoKuang Iron Factory and Daming Film Studio.[3][4] Also, she used some money to invest in different areas like iron factories, banks, Japanese cuisine, noodles, theatres, and so on.[2] Moreover, her elder brother Chen, Long-de (陳隆德) was the most famous developer of the electroplating and gold plating industry. She and her brother's business were both important industrial bloodlines in Sanchong's development.[6]

After she gave birth to her seventh child in 1954, she founded the Daming Theatre, which is the fifth cinema in Sanchong District.[2] In the beginning, she was not just a director, she was also a screenwriter, film producer, and film editor.[2][5] It was said that when the cinema was building up, her husband got injured in a car accident, she was worried and went to the hospital to look after him. While she was looking after her husband, she asked some managers to assist for the cinema. However, when she went back to the cinema, she found that the managers had failed to do their jobs, and she needed money to pay debts and couldn't afford the theatre. Apart from that, she was unable to pay the hospital bill. In order to cover her debts, she created the movie Beggar Chao's Son-in-law (乞丐招女婿) in order to gain financial stability. However, she could not earn enough benefits through the movie. As a result, she was forced to close the cinema.[3][4]

In 2022, she was reported to have passed away in Hawaii.[3]

Daming Cinema was established in 1955 when the first Taiwanese movie came out. It became the fifth cinema in Sanchong District after Tiantai Cinema, Jinguo Cinema, Jindu Cinema, and Jianguo Cinema.[7][8]

In the beginning, they recruited some people to help choose and arrange the film showtimes. Soon after that, she not only served as the manager of the cinema, but also started to orchestrate the film showtimes herself. Before the film selection, she read the detailed information carefully and did research on the synopsis of those films, which cultivated her ability in film selection from some aspects, such as characterization, plots, and inspiration of the movie, and discovered target audience’s preferences. In the same period, she obtained the right of public transmission to the famous American movie, Gone with the wind, and made Daming Cinema gain more visibility and popularity in public.[7][9]

Later in 1956, she and her husband Lin, Xin-quan(林辛全) established Taiwan Daming Film Production Unit (臺灣大明電影製片社)[10] and started to produce their own film. The first film was called Female Enemies (女性的仇人), whose script was written by her. The main theme of the film was to explain why women should act much more carefully in society. Female Enemies was released at four cinemas in 1958. In order to promote this movie, she held a quiz with twelve golden watches as a prize, which made the day of showing of Female Enemies last for twenty-one days.[7][9][11]

After the success of their debut, her husband invited Shau, Luo-hui(邵羅輝), a famous director at that time, to direct the second film, Xue Ren-Gui and Liu Jin-Hua(薛仁貴與柳金花), which was also written by her. During the process of making the film, Chen, Wen-min and Shao, Lou-hui had different opinions to the plots of the film, so they had a quarrel with each other. In the end, he decided to go away from the crew, leaving the film unfinished and taking away the detailed notes of the film, which forced her to edit and finish the film by herself.[11] Although it was tough to produce the film, the result was pretty good. After the next few months, she shot the sequel of Xue Ren-Gui and Liu Jin-Hua.[12]

In 1957, in order to cut the personnel cost, she decided to be a director, and shoot her first film Boundless Bird(茫茫鳥). Because she had discussed this film with Shao, Luo-hui, when he heard that she was going to shoot the film, he decided to shoot and release a similar film called Bird in the Rain(雨中鳥) earlier than her.[13] The cast of Boundless Bird included Bai Rong(白蓉), Hu Tou(戽斗), and Jin Feng(金楓), who are famous artists at that time. The cast of Bird in the Rain included Zhu Yu-lang(朱玉郎), Shu Hua(淑華) and Ling ling(玲玲), who are new artists at that time.[14][15] Because the cast of Boundless Bird was better than that of Bird in the Rain, and the way she directed a film was not worse than what he did, when both Boundless Bird and Bird in the Rain were released, there were more audiences tended to watch Boundless Bird. In Boundless Bird, she was  responsible for not only directing but also producing, editing, and dubbing. Therefore, after Boundless Bird was released, she became the first Taiwanese film director.[16][17]

In the same year, Chen, Wen-min filmed her third movie, Suffering Love(苦戀). According to the advertisement in the United Daily News on December 14, 1957, the style of the film was a tear-jerker.[13][15] On November 1, 1957, the first Taiwanese Film Festival was held at the International House of Taipei. There were 33 films selected, including Female Enemies, Boundless Bird, and Suffering Love.[13][17][18][19]

In 1959, due to the fact that the Film Industry in Taiwan had slumped, and Chen, Wen-min’s husband was seriously ill, she asked others to run Daming Cinema. When Chen Wen-min came back and took over Daming Cinema, it was about to close down. In order to make a living, she shot a film called Beggar Chao's Son-in-law(乞食招子婿). Yet, owing to the influence of Japanese smuggled movies, lots of cinemas refused to play Beggar Chao’s Son-in-law. She and her son had to visit every cinema in person, which cost them lots of money. After the movie was out of theaters, the revenue was not good as expected due to the transportation cost.[20] In order to make a living, her director career ended in this period. The last film in her screenwriter career was Second Degree(二度梅), which is the only film with the video copy nowadays.[21]

Boundless Bird

Boundless Bird (茫茫鳥), also known as The Reformed Husband (母子含冤記), was a 1957 Taiwanese domestic ethics film[22] co-directed by Chen, Wen-Min and Chen, Yi-Sing. It held the distinction of being the first Taiwanese-language film directed by a female director.[23] Also, it was Chen, Wen-Min's first Taiwanese-language fashion movie. At the 1957 Golden Horse Film Festival in Taiwan, three films by Chen, Wen-Min were selected: Boundless Bird, Suffering Love (苦戀), and Female Enemies (女性的仇人).[18]

The story revolved around a man named Li, Zheng-Xiong, who inherited his father's iron factory and subsequently became corrupted. He took a barmaid named Yu-Sian as his concubine and neglected his wife.He even drove his younger brother Li, Zheng-Yi out of the house. One day, while Li, Zheng-Xiong was away on business, Yu-Sian was caught having an affair with the factory manager by his son, Li, Long, so she wanted to harm him. Fortunately, he was rescued by Li, Zheng-Yi. When Li, Zheng-Xiong came back, Li, Zheng-Yi exposed Yu-Sian’s adultery. He became furious and shot her. Before she died, she stabbed the factory manager as atonement.[24][22] This movie addressed a significant issue regarding inter-class romantic relationships. It promoted the idea of teenagers being able to freely pursue relationships with individuals from any social backgrounds and also emphasized the importance of parental support. Additionally, the film delved into themes of marital morality, shedding light on prevalent issues within Taiwanese society during that time, such as social inequality and domestic violence.[25]

In the initial stages of the film's creation, serial pictures (also known as linked pictures) were utilized to develop the movie storyboards.[13] The film predominantly used medium shots and panoramas to narrate the story, while combining natural and artificial light sources in order to reduce costs.[22] Chen, Wen-Min was renowned for her insightful social commentary and meticulous character development. Her unique filmmaking approach involved expertly using the language of the camera to create a subtle and authentic portrayal of emotions, allowing the audience to deeply empathize with the characters' inner turmoil and pain. She also placed great emphasis on the minutiae, using subtle actions and dialogue to unveil the characters' personalities and emotions, thereby rendering them more genuine and relatable to the audience.

• Chen Wen-min at IMDb
• Chen Wen-min at the Hong Kong Movie DataBase