# Old Fox (オールド・フォックス 11歳の選択)
**Old Fox** (老狐狸; Japanese release title オールド・フォックス 11歳の選択) is a 2023 Taiwanese drama film directed by Hsiao Ya-chuan (蕭雅全) and produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, set in 1989 Taiwan during a stock market and property boom, about an 11-year-old boy torn between his honest father and a cunning landlord nicknamed the "Old Fox"[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/) • [2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/). It won four prizes at the 60th Golden Horse Awards in 2023, including Best Director[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29452517/awards/).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original title / year | 老狐狸 (Old Fox), Taiwan, 2023[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/) |
| Director / producers | Hsiao Ya-chuan; produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Elisa Y.H. Lin, and Osaka Fumiko[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/) |
| Setting | 1989 Taipei suburbs, the era of "Everyone Investing in Stocks"[4](https://www.filmassist.ntpc.gov.tw/en/film/1177) |
| Main cast | Bai Run-yin (Liao Jie), Liu Kuan-ting (Liao Tai-lai), Akio Chen (Boss Xie), Eugenie Liu, Mugi Kadowaki[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/) • [2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/) |
| Runtime / rating | 112 minutes, rated G[5](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/3639) |
| Golden Horse Awards 2023 | Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Akio Chen), Best Makeup & Costume Design, Best Original Film Score[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29452517/awards/) |
| Japanese release | June 14, 2024, distributed by Toei Video; Taiwan–Japan co-production[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/) |
## Spoilers
### Story and setting
The film takes place in 1989, when Taiwan's stock market soared and prices doubled, making some people millionaires overnight while others confronted a harsher reality[4](https://www.filmassist.ntpc.gov.tw/en/film/1177). The Taiwan Film Institute's synopsis places the story against the market's swing from 2,000 points up to 12,000 and back down to 2,000 within eight months[6](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/3b569eb16caef1ae7bd02a71dc9a0c2d).
Eleven-year-old Liao Jie lives with his father Liao Tai-lai, a restaurant worker, in the Taipei suburbs. The two are saving to buy a home of their own, with the aim of opening the barbershop the boy's late mother had dreamed of; the father tells his son they need three more years of saving[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/) • [6](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/3b569eb16caef1ae7bd02a71dc9a0c2d). Soaring property prices push that goal out of reach[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/).
One day Liao Jie meets their landlord, Boss Xie, known as the "Old Fox" for his fox-like shrewdness. Unlike the gentle, honest Tai-lai, Xie tells the boy that to get ahead one must abandon others, and teaches him a method for switching off empathy. Torn between his father's example and Xie's survival philosophy, Liao Jie begins to waver[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/) • [6](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/3b569eb16caef1ae7bd02a71dc9a0c2d). The story closes years later with an adult architect, played by Wen Sheng-hao, who drinks ice water before coolly telling a colleague that a design choice was made because "it costs more", and is called an old fox in return[6](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/3b569eb16caef1ae7bd02a71dc9a0c2d).
## Production
Hsiao Ya-chuan, born in Taipei in 1967, began as an assistant director on Hou Hsiao-hsien's films; his debut feature *Falling Dreams* (2000) was selected for Directors' Fortnight at Cannes, and his 2018 film *Father to Son* won Taipei Film Awards for Best Director[5](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/3639) • [7](https://www.kff.tw/storage/files/shares_2023/2024_%E9%9B%84%E5%BD%B1%E5%B0%88%E5%88%8A_%E9%9B%BB%E5%AD%90%E7%89%88.pdf). *Old Fox* was shot in December 2022 by Sky Films Entertainment[4](https://www.filmassist.ntpc.gov.tw/en/film/1177).
The production reconstructed the period in detail. A key scene required an authentic recreation of a 1990s-style public restroom, built in Banqiao Riverside Park in [New Taipei City](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-taipei-city), with additional shooting at the Dong'ao Fishing Harbor in Wanli to capture the era's ambience[4](https://www.filmassist.ntpc.gov.tw/en/film/1177). Reviewers noted period touches such as the father and son reminding each other to switch off the water heater to use the last stretch of hot water in the pipe, and the trick of dripping water slowly into the bathtub to fool the water meter[8](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/eweekly/XE2312223631/).
Japanese actress Mugi Kadowaki made her first appearance in a Taiwanese film as Yang Jun-mei, a married woman living an economically comfortable but empty life[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/).
## Themes
Director Hsiao has said the film grew from thinking about class conflict and empathy in modern society: he described empathy as an attitude of crossing lines to understand the other person, and said that while he would not claim empathy alone dissolves class conflict, losing it is a key reason class conflict widens day by day[8](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/eweekly/XE2312223631/). In an interview with the *South China Morning Post*, he said he drew on his own family's debate about whether to put themselves or others first, a theme he hoped would resonate today as in the Taiwan of the late 1980s, the period after [Chiang Ching-kuo](https://www.edgepedia.org/chiang-ching-kuo) lifted martial law in 1987 after 38 years[9](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3260036/message-old-fox-movie-about-social-change-taiwan-after-martial-law-according-director-hsiao-ya-chuan).
A reviewer for the Taiwan Film Festival in Australia described the film's structure as interweaving three generations with different values: the era that shaped the Fox, the era that shaped the boy's gentle father, and the boy's own era[10](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2024-program/oldfox).
## Awards and reception
At the 60th Golden Horse Awards in November 2023, Hsiao Ya-chuan won Best Director and Akio Chen won Best Supporting Actor, with additional wins for Best Makeup & Costume Design and Best Original Film Score; the film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress (Eugenie Liu)[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29452517/awards/) • [11](https://focustaiwan.tw/culture/202311250013). At the 2024 Taipei Film Awards it won Best Narrative Feature, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Makeup & Costume Design[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/). The Taiwan Film Critics Society named it Best Feature, Best Director, and Best Script for 2024[10](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2024-program/oldfox), and it won the 2025 Hong Kong Film Award for Best Asian Chinese Language Film[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29452517/awards/). It screened in the World Focus section of the 2023 Tokyo International Film Festival and in competition at the 2024 Udine Far East Film Festival[1](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/) • [10](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2024-program/oldfox).
Critics singled out the two leads. A Cinema Escapist review praised the acting across the cast, calling Bai Run-yin's Liao Jie and Akio Chen's Boss Xie the film's standouts, and noted that it depicts poverty without exaggerating bleakness or romanticizing it[12](https://www.cinemaescapist.com/2024/03/review-old-fox-taiwan-movie/). Variety's Alissa Simon wrote that Hsiao, who started his career working for Hou Hsiao-hsien, had not yet achieved his master's touch but shows potential while proving himself a humanist at heart[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_fox).
The film was released in limited US theaters on March 29, 2024[13](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_fox) and in Japan on June 14, 2024[2](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/).
## References
1. [OLD FOX – Taiwan Pavilion Presented by TAICCA](https://pavilion.taicca.tw/portfolio-item/old-fox/)
2. [オールド・フォックス 11歳の選択 : 作品情報・キャスト・あらすじ・動画, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/100361/)
3. [Old Fox (2023) – Awards, IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt29452517/awards/)
4. [Old Fox(老狐狸), Film Assist and Development Center, New Taipei City](https://www.filmassist.ntpc.gov.tw/en/film/1177)
5. [台北金馬影展 Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival｜老狐狸](https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/about/archive/detail/3639)
6. [電影｜老狐狸, 台灣影視聽數位博物館](https://tfai.openmuseum.tw/mdb/mp_film/3b569eb16caef1ae7bd02a71dc9a0c2d)
7. [Short Film Competition booklet, Golden Horse Film Festival (Hsiao Ya-chuan biography)](https://www.kff.tw/storage/files/shares_2023/2024_%E9%9B%84%E5%BD%B1%E5%B0%88%E5%88%8A_%E9%9B%BB%E5%AD%90%E7%89%88.pdf)
8. [影評心得｜《老狐狸》時代感與細膩度俱足, 開眼電影網 eWeekly](https://app2.atmovies.com.tw/eweekly/XE2312223631/)
9. [The message of Old Fox, movie about social change in Taiwan after martial law, South China Morning Post](https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/entertainment/article/3260036/message-old-fox-movie-about-social-change-taiwan-after-martial-law-according-director-hsiao-ya-chuan)
10. [OLD FOX 《老狐狸》, Taiwan Film Festival in Australia](https://www.taiwanfilmfestival.org.au/2024-program/oldfox)
11. [Golden Horse Awards: Hsiao Ya-chuan wins best director for 'OLD FOX', Focus Taiwan](https://focustaiwan.tw/culture/202311250013)
12. [Review: "Old Fox" Shines With Exemplary Acting and Nuanced Take on Inequality, Cinema Escapist](https://www.cinemaescapist.com/2024/03/review-old-fox-taiwan-movie/)
13. [Old Fox, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/old_fox)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license