Running Time: 102 mins / Production Year: 2007~2008 / Theatrical Release: Taiwan, 1 Aug 2008 / Screens: 6
In Sung dynasty, a Japanese man named Yagi…couldn’t take the badgering from the male black tea tribe and ridiculed that the male black tea was not the best tea in the world; causing the two tribes to challenge each other in a “tea fight”. The male black tea tribe massacred the female black tea tribe and burned down the tea farm. A child escaped from the fire and turned into a fire dragon and flew away after drinking a mixture of both male and female black tea. It wasn’t until then that the male black tea tribe realized that they had made a big mistake, thus begins the long journey in search of the female black tea.
In 2007, the descendant Yagi stayed away from tea after his wife died in an accident years ago which he believed is the deed of a curse by the black tea. Yagi’s daughter, Mikiko couldn’t take anymore of her father’s dwindling behavior, so she decided to head to Taiwan to look for the legendary black tea after finding a cure for the curse in an ancient book.
There’s an “underground tea market” somewhere in Taiwan that sells rare expensive tea from around the world. The owner of the market is Yang who is the heir of the ancient “male black tea tribe”. Mikiko started to fall in love with Yang after being saved by him, what she didn’t know is that she is slowly falling into Yang’s trap. Yagi who came after Mikiko to Taiwan, met Rufa, who is the heir of the “female black tea tribe”, during his journey of finding his daughter; like Mikiko, Yagi is also falling into a trap.
Each for their own cause, Yagi, Mikiko, Yang, and Rufa are tangled up in a web of love and hate; their quest for the black tea can only take them deeper into the web…
CREW
Executive Producers: KAZUHIKO TADASHIKI, NAOFUMI MAEDA, TAKEO HISAMATSU, CHEN HUI-LING
Co-Executive Producers: TADAATSU SHUNDO, SEIKI KASAI, CHEN CHIN-FU
Producers: YEH JUFENG, YUMIKO TAKEBE, KOUSUKE ONO, HIDEKO SAITO, NORIKO KAWAKAMI
Co-Producer: YURI NISHIMOTO
Line Producers: CHO LI, MASAYUKI MOTOMOCHI
Original Story: WANG YE-MING
Scriptwriter: AKANE YAMADA
Director of Photography: CHAN CHI YING
Gaffer: CHEN KUAN-TING
Production Designer: TANG WEI-HSUAN
Art Designers: CHANG KENG-HAO, CHANG KENG-HUA
Costume Designer: YUKO SUGIYAMA
Editors: KU XIAO-YUN, TAKASHIGE KIKUI
Sound: YANG CHING-AN, TU DUU-CHIH
Music: SEAN LENNON, ZAK
Animation: STUDIO 4℃
Special Visual Effects: MASAHIRO ONDA
CAST
VIC CHOU as Yang
NING CHANG as Rufa
TERUYUKI KAGAWA as Yagi
ERIKA TODA as Mikiko
ERIC TSANG as Lu Yu
CHIN SHIH-JIE as the Tea Master
HUANG CHIEN-WEI as Pao
WANG CHING-KUAN as Huo
YOSHIHIKO HOSODA as Tsukihiko
DIRECTOR
WANG YE-MING
Nicknamed Birdy by his close friends; graduated from the Department of Theatre of Taipei National University of The Arts and studied under Edward Yang; he had shown great talent already as a student, and acted in Edward Yang’s films: “A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY” and “A CONFUCIAN’S CONFUSION”, his own brand of comedy shook the grounds of the usual acting techniques. Other than films, Wang also directed many experimental stage plays. “TEA FIGHT” is Wang’s first film as both the director and scriptwriter. He hopes for a highly entertaining commercial film that will bring the audience back to the theatre.
Asians can’t live without drinking tea. Be it green tea, red tea or Oolong tea, tea that cost hundred per kilogram or thousands per gram, as long as it is refreshing to drink it, that would be a fine tea.Fighting is human’s instinct. Between politician and businessman, man and woman, director and talent, we compete, in different scales, psychologically or physically, they’re all a fight.
Tea and fight, is all around us. Let’s have a sip of tea, and as the aftertaste evolves from bitter to sweet, we’ll have a fight!
*Closing Film of the Taipei Film Festival, 2008.
*Selected for Puchon Int’l Fantastic Film Festival, 2008.