Taiwanese film 'The Kids' honored at Hawaii film festival

Los Angeles, Nov. 22 (CNA) The Taiwanese film "The Kids"(小孩), a picture about young love and teenage pregnancy, won the Network for the Promotion of Asia-Pacific Cinema (NETPAC) award at the 35th Hawaii International Film Festival Sunday.

The film festival said "The Kids," directed by first-time director Sunny Yu (于瑋珊), might seem like just another cautionary tale of young love run awry. Stories of teenage pregnancies and ill-prepared young parents are nothing new in the West, but in Taiwan, where the value system is much more black and white, it is largely taboo.

The organizers noted that the film is Yu's debut work and that the NETPAC awards are specifically aimed at encouraging new young directors.

The Taiwan Academy, which serves as the overseas representative office of Taiwan's Ministry of Culture, described the Hawaii International Film Festival as one of only a few film festivals in the United States that values films and new directors from the Asia-Pacific region.

In recent years, two other Taiwanese films have also been honored at the festival -- "Cape No. 7" (海角七號), a romantic music-drama, was awarded the Golden Orchid Award in 2008, and "Monga" (艋舺), a gangster film set in 1980s Taipei, was awarded with a NTEPAC award in 2010.

(By Tsao Yu-fan and Lilian Wu)ENDITEM/J