Taiwan Movie Theatre - Ice Poison
Date: Friday, December 13, 2019
Time: 1 pm
Venue: Taiwanese Canadian Cultural Centre (8853 Selkirk Street, Vancouver)
Tel: 604-267-0901
Free admission
Ice Poison
2014∣95 min∣Color∣Narrative Feature∣Mandarin, Yunnan Dialect
With crop prices remaining too weak to make ends meet, a Burmese farmer pawns his cow for an old motorcycle so that his son can take passengers to town for extra income. The new business is fruitless until the son meets San-Mei, a young woman tricked into marriage in China, who returns home for her grandfather’s funeral. Longing to make more money so she can bring her child back to Myanmar permanently, San-Mei enters the risky but lucrative business of transporting crystal meth, and enlists the help of the farmer’s son. But as addiction takes hold, the answers to their future also perish like the white meth smoke.
Taiwanese actress WU Ke-Xi proves her talent by successfully capturing the Yunnan dialect for her Burmese-Chinese role as San-Mei. Despite having limited days for principal photography, director Midi Z delivers a simple yet meticulously executed and mesmerizing story on Myanmar’s changes under capitalism. The film received high praise at film festivals, and was selected as Taiwan’s official entry to the 2015 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.
2014 Edinburgh International Film Festival - Best International Film
2014 Peace & Love Film Festival - Best Director
2014 Taipei Film Festival - Press Award & Best Director
2014 Berlin International Film Festival
Director
Midi Z
Born in Myanmar in 1982 to Chinese parents, Taiwan-based director Midi Z already has several critically acclaimed documentaries and feature films to his credit. Often shot with a very low budget, his films portray the lives in Myanmar and the Burmese diaspora. His first commercial film The Road to Mandalay (2016) won the Fedora Award for Best Film at the 73rd Venice International Film Festival.
