The Moon Also Rises
The Moon Also Rises is the English release title of a 2005 Taiwanese family melodrama directed by Lin Cheng-sheng (林正盛), adapted from the short story "Hsi-lien" (西蓮) by the writer Li Ang, and running 113 minutes in Mandarin and Taiwanese (Hokkien).1 The Chinese title means "Under the Moonlight, I Remember."2 The film won Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2004 Golden Horse Awards and was reviewed at the Pusan Film Festival in October 2005.1 • 2
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Identity | 2005 Taiwanese feature directed by Lin Cheng-sheng; 113 minutes; Mandarin and Taiwanese dialogue1 |
| Source | Adapted from Li Ang's short story "Hsi-lien" (西蓮), relocated from Lugang to the Taitung coast1 |
| Awards | Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, 2004 Golden Horse Awards1 |
| Festival | Reviewed at Pusan Film Festival (A Window on Asian Cinema), October 7, 20052 |
| Setting | Early-1960s Taiwan during the White Terror period2 |
| Lead cast | Yang Kuei-mei, Shih Yi-nan, Lin Chia-yu, Chen Te-lieh2 |
| Restoration | TFAI restored DCP, catalog M2025_0809_49, rated PG-121 |
Spoilers
Plot and themes
The story follows Bao-cai, a divorced woman who returns with her daughter Hsi-lien to the family home in Taitung, on Taiwan's east coast, in the Dulan mountain area.1 Hsi-lien's romance with the teacher Zhu-cheng is carried on through letters that Bao-cai intercepts; reading them awakens her own suppressed desires.1 TFAI describes the adaptation as focusing on the desire and inner struggle of a middle-aged woman, with the story moved from Li Ang's original Lugang setting to the east coast.1
AllMovie's synopsis differs in detail, describing a village schoolteacher, Xi-lien, who plans to marry her cousin Jun-ming but must first overcome her mother's opposition, set in the mid-sixties.5 Variety adds a political dimension: the film is set during Taiwan's White Terror period, and Hsi-lien's father is revealed to be a longtime political prisoner, a subject Variety noted was still barely explored by Taiwan filmmakers.2
Identity and disambiguation
The best-documented film of this title is Lin Cheng-sheng's 2005 Taiwanese feature, identified by the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), the national film archive, which holds a restored DCP of the film.1 Two unrelated works share the English title: a 2024 French short documentary by Yuyan Wang that premiered in Berlinale Shorts,3 and a 1992 American pornographic film directed by Stephen Lucas, classified in Quebec in February 1995.4 No 1990s crime drama of this title appears in the retrieved record; the 2005 melodrama is the subject of this article.
Production and credits
Lin Cheng-sheng directed and adapted the screenplay from Li Ang's story, and produced the film with Chiu Shun-ching; it was an O.G. Sun production released by Central Motion Picture Corp.2 The principal cast comprises Yang Kuei-mei as Chen Pao-chai, Shih Yi-nan as Chu Cheng, Lin Chia-yu as Hsi-lien, and Chen Te-lieh as Chen Jun-ming, with Lin Chia-li and Chang Feng-feng in supporting roles; the dialogue mixes Hokkien, Mandarin, and Japanese.2 Sound design was by Tu Duu-chih and cinematography by Yang Wei-han and Song Wen-zhong.2
Title and literary allusion
The English title is a translation rather than a literal rendering: Variety reports that the Chinese title means "Under the Moonlight, I Remember."2
Reception and awards
Yang Kuei-mei won Best Actress at the December 2004 Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan's principal film honors, and the film also won Best Adapted Screenplay there.1 • 2 Variety reviewed the film at the Pusan Film Festival's A Window on Asian Cinema section on October 7, 2005.2 Variety's verdict was mixed: it called the small-scale family drama impressive in its opening but judged that it "jumps the rails" in later stages with an excess of mannerisms and psychological implausibilities.2
By the numbers
Sources disagree on the runtime: TFAI and Variety both give 113 minutes,1 • 2 while AllMovie lists 105 minutes.5 AllMovie lists a release date of June 18, 2005, and a box office gross of $14,983 without specifying the market; both figures are single-sourced.5
What has changed since 2023
The Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute has presented a restored version of the film, cataloged as M2025_0809_49 and rated PG-12, a listing that postdates November 2023.1 Separately, the English title gained a new bearer: Yuyan Wang's 2024 French short documentary, 24 minutes per the Berlinale catalog (23 minutes per its sales agent), about artificial moons and a retired couple, which screened in Berlinale Shorts in February 2024 and won Best Experimental at the KO:SH Film Fest in Albania in September 2025 after more than 25 festival selections.3 • 6
References
- The Moon Also Rises (Restored), Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute
- The Moon Also Rises, Variety review (2005)
- The Moon Also Rises, Berlinale 2024 programme
- The Moon also Rises, Répertoire des films classés, Québec
- The Moon Also Rises (2005), AllMovie
- The Moon Also Rises, Square Eyes Film
Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1990s films › Crime dramas and gangster films
Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026
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