1. Wei Te-sheng was born on 16 August 1969 and is a Taiwanese film director and screenwriter.
21 Facts About Wei Te-sheng
1. 2.
Wei Te-sheng directed Cape No 7, currently the highest grossing domestic Taiwanese film and the second highest-grossing film in Taiwanese film history.
3.
Wei Te-sheng's family ran a clockmaker's shop and attended a Presbyterian church.
4.
The first Hollywood film Wei Te-sheng watched was Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America while Wei Te-sheng was doing his military service.
5.
Wei Te-sheng studied Electrical Engineering in Far Eastern Vocational School in Tainan.
6.
In 1993 or 1994 when Wei Te-sheng was 26, he entered the studio of director Edward Yang as a grip assistant.
7.
Later Wei Te-sheng worked odd jobs to fund his own short films, including Three Dialogues and Before Dawn, which both won a Golden Harvest Award.
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Edward Yang 8.
Wei Te-sheng told me to use my own life experience and not copy anybody.
9.
On this film Wei Te-sheng worked as an assistant director and worked with producer Jimmy Huang.
10.
Since 1996, Wei Te-sheng had been trying to make the war epic Seediq Bale, but he could not raise the funds.
11.
In July 2004, Wei Te-sheng read about a Yunlin postman who successfully delivered a piece of mail addressed in the old Japanese style.
12.
Wei Te-sheng decided to make the film, Cape No 7, based on this story, in the hopes of financing Seediq Bale.
13.
Wei Te-sheng finished the script by the end of 2006, and filmed it in the fall of 2007 in the Hengchun Peninsula of Pingtung County.
14.
Wei Te-sheng later said this film's zealous reception should help him manage his debts.
15.
Wei Te-sheng believed "that the films that hit the screens before the end of summer vacation in 2007 were all 'safe bets'", because they avoided competition from Hollywood blockbusters.
16.
Wei Te-sheng followed this theory when he released Cape No 7 in 2008.
17.
Seediq Bale was released in 2011, but Wei Te-sheng began to work on the film much earlier.
18.
Wei Te-sheng began to study history relevant to the aborigines and decided to make a film about chief Mona Rudao.
19.
In late 2003, Wei Te-sheng raised NTD 2.5 million and shot a five-minute demonstration film in order to further raise NTD 300 million to shoot the complete film.
20.
The fundraising failed, and director Chen Kuo-fu advised Wei Te-sheng to make another film to win the trust of investors, so Wei Te-sheng turned his attention to make Cape No 7.
21.
Wei Te-sheng said this made him nervous and grouchy, and he had to rely on the patience of the family and employees.