At the end of 2019, the Outdoor Cinema of the Tainan Film Center started to screen old films. The first film screened here was Back to Anping Harbor, which was shot in Anping. The 180 seats were all taken. Those without a seat leaned against the city wall and enjoyed the film just as much. It was an evening of nostalgia for seniors, and novelty for the young. Watching films at a historic site in a gentle evening breeze, such cultural scenery in Tainan is very enviable!

How did the Outdoor Cinema of the Tainan Film Center come about? Certainly not from thin air.The idea of showing restored classic film at a historic site started with the story of the Tainan Film Center.

During Japan Colonial Period, the Tainan Film Center was the Tainan Broadcasting Bureau, established in 1932. Back then, if you wanted to listen to the radio, you needed to submit a radio registration to the Broadcasting Association and pay a monthly fee. In 1945 when the Nationalist government took over Taiwan, the Tainan Broadcasting Bureau was taken over by the the Broadcasting Corporation of China ( BCC ). In 1949, the National government moved to Taiwan. BCC started broadcasting overseas under the name Voice of Free China. In 1968, BCC established its Tainan Station here, until it moved out of Great South Gate Park in 1997.

Looking back at the 65 years of history, from the Tainan Broadcasting Bureau to the BCC Tainan Station, this building has been a base for vocalization to the outside world. Therefore, in July 2001, the Tainan City Government designated it as a municipal historic site. Restoration work was then carried out in January 2010. At the same time, the building positioned was positioned as a future stronghold for promoting film and television culture !

On May 13, 2011, Tainan City Government and Tainan National University of the Arts ( TNNUA ) signed a Letter of Intent to jointly promote the development of the film and television cultural industry in Tainan, to make Tainan a film-friendly city. The city government entrusted the College of Sound and Image Arts, TNNUA to found Tainan Film Center in this building. The purpose of the center is to conduct film and television promotion and education, assist with film production, provide information inquiry, and screen films, etc.

Tainan Film Center was established to promote film and television culture. But how can the public get to know the museum? The Cultural Affairs Bureau of Tainan City Government and TNNUA brain-stormed together and decided to start with the movies that are most close to the people.

The Outdoor Cinema of Tainan Film Center turns the Great South Gate into an open-air movie screening area, bringing people closer to the adjacent Tainan Film Center. This makes up for the limited space of the center, which only has a 24 seat screening room, unsuitable for showing movies. A one-year plan has been laid out to show 10 restored classic films. These 10 films are the latest digitally restored versions of Taiwan’s classic movies, all restored by the Taiwan Film Institute and TNNUA, offering a rare and valuable chance to revisit the classics. Even more commendable, entrance is free to all.

This project is also one of the sub-projects of the Ministry of Culture’s subsidy plan for municipal governments to promote local audiovisual experience and settlement development. It has received central government subsidies to purchase equipment to improve the quality of outdoor film screening.

At the end of November 2019, the first film shown was Back to Anping Harbor, which has Tainan as the background. It attracted many viewers that day, gathering under the moonlight to watch the movie by the city wall. It was surprising that the age range of the audience spanned from 20 to 80 years old. Elders who rarely go to the cinema now once again enjoyed watching a film, just like in the past. Classic Taiwanese films will be screened here all the way till the end of the year. The movies to be shown include Raining on the Mountain, listed by Hong Kong Film Awards as one of the Top 100 Mandarin Films; Taiwanese language film Typhoon, directed by Pan Lei, father of Taiwanese art films, in the 1960s; The Bride Who Has Returned from Hell, directed by Xin Qi, who was both a director and an actor; and Goodbye, Taipei, starring Taiwanese super star Wen Shia and his four sisters. Come and experience the charm of open-air cinema on Saturday evenings !

No. 38, Nanmen Road, West Central District, Tainan City
Opening Hours : Tue. thru Sun. 10:00 - 12:30, 13:30 - 17:30
Tainan Hoo-gua Hi-inn Screening Schedule in the rest of 2020
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