Be sure to have a coherent and well conceived structure (introduction, body, conclusion), where you back your thesis/topic up with examples from the film(s) you are discussing. Also be sure to think of good title and dont forget to proofread. The final paper should be AT LEAST 6 pages in length, but papers as long as 12 pages will be accepted. Quality, however, is much more important than length.
Graduate students should try to write a paper approximately 15-20 pages. Graduate students should also utilize more secondary sources, especially Chinese language materials.
You are free to choose your own topic for the final paper, as long as you focus upon some aspect of contemporary Taiwan cinema. You can write about a director, film, topic or theme, genre, or even a technical aspect of filmmaking. Because of the length parameters, you should try to focus on a specific topic that is not too broad. In order to better focus on your analysis of the film, please keep plot summaries to a maximum of one or two paragraphs.
Here are some sample topics:
(Technical) Lighting and Cinematography in Hou Hsiao-hsiens Millenium Mambo
(Thematic) Coming of Age: Edward Yangs Brighter Summer Day and Yi Yi
(Comparative) Sex and the City: Taipei Youth Culture in Leon Tais Twenty-Something Taipei and Hou Hsiao-hsiens Millennium Mambo
(Director, Thematic) Representations of the Countryside in Lee Hsings Beautiful Duckling and Oyster Girl
(Genre) Exploring the Qiong Yao melodramatic formula
(Historical) Historical Representation in Hou Hsiao-hsiens Taiwan Trilogy
(Director) Nostalgia in the work of Tsai Ming-liang
(Industry) Ang Lee/Chen Kuo-fu and Taiwan Cinemas Transnational Future
During this course we have discussed both the narrative and technical elements of numerous films. You have also written about of these aspects of film in your short writing assignments each week and close analysis assignment. For your final paper feel free to focus either on an analysis of the narrative/plot or the more technical elements of the film(s). However, please note that these two sides of filmmaking are intricately interconnected and even if you decide to focus primarily on a discussion of the narrative/thematic elements, you should still make some reference to how the technical aspects of the film work in concert with those themes. The opposite also applies if you focus on the technical aspects of any given film.
