"Beyond Beauty – Taiwan from Above" Premieres: Witness Taiwan’s Beauty and Scars from the Skies

Directed and shot by aerial photographer Chi Po-lin, produced by Hou Hsiao-hsien, narrated by Wu Nien-jen, and with music by Ricky Ho, "Beyond Beauty – Taiwan from Above" cost nearly NT$100 million to produce, making it the highest-budget documentary in Taiwan’s film history. Director Chi Po-lin spent nearly three years filming, flying across Taiwan, capturing the entire island from breathtaking aerial perspectives — offering netizens a “flight journey” to see a Taiwan both familiar and strange.

In early 2009, Director Chi invested nearly NT$3 million of his savings to rent professional aerial filming equipment from abroad, circling Taiwan in 30 hours to capture moving images of the island. Then came Typhoon Morakot in August 2009, which severely damaged Taiwan’s mountain forests. Flying into the disaster zones in a helicopter, Chi Po-lin witnessed the ravaged landscape and deeply felt that flat images alone could not convey the real crisis Taiwan was facing. Determined, he mortgaged his home and borrowed funds from friends to purchase nearly NT$30 million worth of professional aerial filming equipment in Taiwan, launching the project to create Taiwan’s first aerial documentary film, "Beyond Beauty – Taiwan from Above."

“Over the years, I have been deeply moved and awed by Taiwan’s beautiful landscapes, but also worried and saddened by the changes to its terrain. What I’ve seen, I also want you to see.”

 

Chi Po-lin believes that although we live here every day, we should be closest to “her,” yet when viewed from the skies, Taiwan’s diverse forms are all things the public has never seen before — worthy of deep reflection.

 

“Her beauty, her scars — will be presented to you in grandeur through my lens.”

 

 

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