【OIA】Bypast | 2026 NCHU Open-Air Film Festival 🎥
“稚夢” (Childhood Dreams) evokes shared memories of youth and culture: “稚” represents the unpolished innocence of growth, while “夢” captures personal reflections on home, love, and life. “Bypast” signifies the act of looking back and retracing former times.
Through the interplay of light and shadow, these films gather the fragments of youth and the traces of time, allowing the past to illuminate the present.
More than a nostalgic retrospective, this festival is a cross-cultural invitation. It seeks to awaken the collective memory of Taiwan while introducing international students to the island’s “retro everyday life.” By exchanging cultural symbols and personal stories, we transform cinema into a meaningful dialogue that transcends borders.
✨Festival Info
🎥 Outdoor Film Screening
🎵 Live Music Performances
🥢 Nostalgic Market
📰 Four Thematic Exhibition Zones
Date | ✨ March 20 (Fri), March 21 (Sat) ✨
Time | Activities begin at 14:00 / Film screenings begin at 18:00
Location | Behind the Administration Building Lawn, NCHU
Instagram | @nchu_intuitive_observer
Special Pre-screening Talk: Grandma and Her Ghosts
We are honored to present a special pre-screening talk for Grandma and Her Ghosts. We have cordially invited Director Wang Shau-di to join us in looking back at this timeless masterpiece—a classic animation that has spanned over two decades and remains deeply etched in the collective memory of generations in Taiwan.
Speakers & Host
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Speaker: Award-winning Director Wang Shau-di An influential Taiwanese director, screenwriter, and producer. Known for a documentary-style approach to portraying the lives of ordinary people, Wang’s work is characterized by warmth and social compassion. As the founder of Rice Film International, Wang’s notable works include Grandma and Her Ghosts, Big Hospital Little Doctor, and the groundbreaking Q Series, earning numerous Golden Bell Awards.
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Host: Lin Guan-yu A senior in the Department of Chinese Literature at National Chung Hsing University (NCHU). Lin currently serves as a Campus Ambassador for the General Association of Chinese Culture and was formerly the Head of Curation for the 2025 NCHU Starry Night Film Festival and Head of Academic Affairs for the 2024 edition. He is deeply interested in literature, film, and Taiwanese cultural issues.
Pre-screening Talk | Theme of Discussion
The session will begin with the latest updates regarding the upcoming sequel, Grandma and Her Ghosts 2: Baby Bean. We will then reflect on how the original film, as a cornerstone of Taiwanese animation, utilizes local folklore, family dynamics, and a child’s perspective to help audiences rediscover the emotions and memories often buried under the bustle of daily life.
Exploring childhood fears and imagination: We will discuss themes of family, faith, and death, as well as those unspoken emotions that have lingered in our hearts since youth.
Grandma and Her Ghosts was born in an era before Taiwanese animation gained widespread acclaim. Yet, it captured the essence of the land with profound sincerity—depicting the distance between grandparent and grandchild, a child’s first encounter with "loss," and how people learn to understand, protect, and let go amidst the intersection of folk beliefs and everyday life.
Outdoor Film Screening
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3/20 — Grandma and Her Ghosts (魔法阿媽)
Taiwan | 1998 / 2021 | Color | 87 mins | Mandarin & Taiwanese
Themes: Family, Growth, Life and Death, Faith
Genre: Animation, Supernatural
Director: Wang Shao-di
Synopsis:
“Never forget the purest affection between people.”
A Taiwanese classic original animated feature, the film weaves together themes of family, coming-of-age, life and death, and folk belief. The story follows Dou-Dou, a young boy sent to live with his grandmother in rural Keelung while his mother travels abroad to care for his injured father.
At first, Dou-Dou struggles to get along with his grandmother, especially because of her seemingly superstitious practices. Ignoring her warnings, he enters a mysterious room and accidentally releases a sealed evil spirit, which possesses the grandmother’s cat, Kuro. The possessed cat devours wandering spirits and tempts Dou-Dou with a way to “sell” his grandmother in exchange for returning home—requiring him to collect three of her tears.
Throughout this journey, Dou-Dou encounters strange and magical experiences that gradually transform his feelings toward his grandmother, leading to a warmer and deeper bond between them.
🐈⬛ Join us under the night sky to relive this heartwarming tale of intergenerational love and rich Taiwanese folk belief—and revisit the classic line: “Sell your grandma!”
*Some content adapted from online sources / Wikipedia.*
3/21 — Back to the Good Times (花甲大人轉男孩)
Taiwan | 2018 | Color | 119 mins | Mandarin & Taiwanese
Themes: Family Bonds, Growth and Identity, Intergenerational Dialogue, Homecoming
Genre: Drama
Director: Chu Yu-ning
Synopsis:
Nearly one year after the passing of the family matriarch, the Zheng family prepares for her memorial ceremony. Hua Jia returns home from military service and reunites sweetly with his partner, A-Wei. However, the next morning, they are discovered naked in bed by A-Wei’s conservative parents. What follows is a chaotic and tense confrontation between the two families.
A-Wei grows increasingly disappointed in Hua Jia’s inability to confront responsibility, while Hua Jia finds himself entangled in a series of misfortunes. Facing an unprecedented life crisis, he must decide how to save himself—and protect his family.
*Some content adapted from online sources / Wikipedia.*
🎤Live Music Performances
3/20, 17:10–17:30 | Shengyang Guitar Club 🎵3/20, 17:30–17:50 | A Cappella Club 🎤
3/21, 14:00–15:30 | Jimmy ✨
3/21, 16:00–17:30 | KaLiKaLi 🕶️
📰 Four Thematic Exhibition Zones
Zone 1 — Spring | Echoes of Streets and FabricThe fragrance of food whispers softly; garments sway like voices in the wind.
This zone presents the human landscape of streets, connecting people through food and transforming daily life into a vessel of memory and warmth.
Zone 2 — Winter | Distant Roads Beneath Lit Windows
To dwell is to be wrapped in lingering memories; to travel is to follow footprints carried by the wind.
This zone explores fragments of history embedded in everyday life, tracing footsteps to moments where time once paused.
Zone 3 — Autumn | Slightly Curled Pages
The sound of the school bell in the corridor lingers like the warmth before sunset—quietly illuminating the self still searching, yet never standing still.
This zone focuses on self-growth and youthful memories, revisiting student life and allowing people of different generations and nationalities to encounter this tender chapter of time.
Zone 4 — Summer | Childlike Ripples
Clapping a small rubber ball, singing the hits of our era.
This zone conveys cultural preservation, emotional connection, and intergenerational dialogue—following the guidance of childlike wonder so that joy becomes a shared language across time.
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