Day 13: It's more than a movie...

Today is potentially my last day in Taiwan... I won't know until my lunch meeting. In the meantime, I have an interview in the morning with Formosa Weekly -- it's a magazine owned and run by former Vice-President Annette Lu. The journalist Mr. Chen has not seen the film, but he has read a lot about it, so he tries to ask questions that haven't been answered before (although at this point, having done more than several dozen interviews, that's kind of hard).

Towards the end of the interview -- Tiffany Wang of Sky Digi texts me our box office numbers.... AND THEY ARE SUPERB!!!! In Taipei, we hit just under 1 million NT Dollars, and nationwide we hit over 1.8 million NT dollars -- which makes us the #6 highest grossing movie in Taiwan and THE #1 MOVIE IN TAIWAN ON A PER SCREEN AVERAGE!!!!!!! The #1-5 grossing movies were all Hollywood blockbusters that had many more screens and much more advertising than Formosa Betrayed (we had 4 screens in Taipei, and 5 other screens nationwide). It's wonderful news and very rewarding after much hard work.

Next we head over to the Howard Hotel for a lunch with my investors Li-Pei Wu, Maysing Yang, and the Sky Digi and Formosa Films teams, to evaluate the weekend and decide what to do next. We all look at the numbers and everyone is very happy. But everyone agrees there is still more work to do. OUR GOAL IS FOR EVERYONE IN TAIWAN TO SEE THE FILM and we discuss what strategies we can use to accomplish that. We agree to make a committee of everyone there.

It's decided that I can go home... :)

So now, I'm at the airport. I'm reminded of our first (and last Taiwan scene) in Formosa Betrayed. At that time in 1983, this airport was called Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport. It was renamed during the previous administration to Taipei-Taoyuan International Airport. This is where our movie begins and ends, and it is here that my trip to Taiwan finishes.

Before I end my blog, I want thank a few people. First, I want to thank my investors -- the ones who made Formosa Betrayed possible. Without their generous and unending support, we would not have a movie today. I want to thank the cast, crew, and production team behind Formosa Betrayed, who's vision, hard work, and dedication has inspired me throughout this process. I want to thank Tiffany Wang of Sky Digi Entertainment for having the courage and the vision to distribute this film in Taiwan -- and her entire team -- Steve Wang, Yvonne Huang, Elisa Tsai, Apple Hsu, and everyone else who worked and volunteered to help the Taiwan release. I especially want to thank our director Adam Kane and our Taiwan co-producer Echo Lin for their tireless work on behalf of Formosa Betrayed.

Finally, I want to thank the Taiwanese people, for your support, your enthusiasm, your courage, your hope, your tears -- and even your criticism! I want to thank everyone who has bought tickets to see Formosa Betrayed -- especially those who have bought tickets for their friends, colleagues, and even strangers. It's been incredible to watch as many Taiwanese have bought tickets for other people to watch the film -- this doesn't happen to a normal movie. It makes me realize that Formosa Betrayed is not just a movie... it's an expression of what it is to be Taiwanese -- and the right to express oneself as a human being.

謝謝大家！台灣加油!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Will