View From the Pier: Taiwan VR

2017 | Taiwan | VR 360 | 10 MIN | GA

Hamasen, once the most prosperous area in Kaohsiung. A smoky, dream-like world where people from different cultures and generations all live together. In this outer world, full of memories, conspiracies are as blurry as smoke and blend into the harmony of the traditional market. The train falls from the sky, arriving at an on-screen platform, just like a movie, and calls everyone together to begin a journey through time and space.

Lai Kuan-Yuan
Film director, CG graphist, XR content creator. Founder of Poké Poké Creative Studio, Taiwan. Lai Kuan-Yuan graduated from Department of Radio, Television and Film of Shih-Hsin University in Taiwan and SUPINFOCOM in France. He’s committed to independent production and multi-media visual arts work. Most of his works focus on the relationship between environment, culture, life and people. The themes of Sci-fi utopia, locality and worldwide issues in folklore/event/environment have always been a rich resource for his artistic creation.

2025 | Taiwan | VR 360 | 25 MIN | GA

Realm of silence, death lies still. Malevolence surrounds, THEY choose to hide. Limbophobia is director Wen-Yee Hsieh’s second VR personal project, once again immersing the audience in his intense dark aesthetics. The film centers around the loss of insight within the collective society, and the struggle between individuals, which transforms into an experience of losing balance, to witness annihilation. Silent, yet more intense and eerie.

Wen-Yee Hsieh
A young artist from Taiwan who poses questions about the relationship between visual art, and architecture. Fascinated by supernatural beings, his works reflect social phenomena and the mystery of life. Hsieh injected himself into works of art, that form a line of energy questioning the individual’s state against the environment.

2019 | Taiwan | VR 360 | 17 MIN | GA

In a summer afternoon, the family gathers to the old house. They surround beside grandma to show their love, even she’s no longer able to move, react or hear clearly. As people come and go, the television keep replaying and the fan is still running in the peaceful old house, where lives the grandma and her maid.

Hsu Chih-Yen
Graduated from the Communications Design of Shih Chien University. Hsu is a director of various films such as music videos, commercials, and short clips. He has a good sense of the rhythm of his film and narrating realistic emotions as well. “Dear EX”, his first feature co-directed with renowned writer Mag Hsu, has won numerous awards at Taipei Film Festival and Golden Horse Awards.

2022 | Taiwan | VR 360 | 35 MIN | GA

Within the walls of the former Green Island prison, political detainee A-Kuen, tells the stories of imprisonment and persecution happened in the 1950s in Taipei. Among fellow inmates, frozen in time, he recounts his own experiences and those of his friend, A-Ching, who never made it out. Experience the time and place, and the waiting, in hope, for a chance to keep the stories alive.
The Man Who Couldn’t Leave integrates the stories of numerous political victims of the White Terror and told through the form of an undelivered family letter. An immersive VR experience of hope, fear and camaraderie.

Singing Chen
Singing Chen is a multidisciplinary filmmaker whose work spans fiction, documentary, and virtual reality. Her debut feature Bundled (2000) was selected for competition at the Vancouver International Film Festival, and God, Man, Dog (2007) screened at the Berlinale, VIFF, Hong Kong, Busan, and other major festivals. Her documentaries often explore artistic practices and environmental issues, while her VR works investigate space, movement, and memory through immersive storytelling.

Her acclaimed VR experience The Man Who Couldn’t Leave (2022) won the “Best Immersive Experience” Prize at the Venice Immersive Competition of the 79th Venice International Film Festival, and she went on to serve as President of the Jury for the 80th edition. Her latest VR work, The Clouds Are Two Thousand Meters Up (2025), received the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival.

2024 | Taiwan | Interactive VR | 30 MIN

Where do we go when we zone out, and how do we find our way back to reality? Sense of Nowhere is a journey from no-where to now-here, inspired by The Way from Taoism, the Illusion from Buddhism, and Jung’s practice of Active Imagination. Blurring the line between inner world and outer reality, it transforms sonic, fragmented thoughts into a tangible experience. It is an invitation for the audience to explore the subconscious, piece together hidden clues, and find their way returning to the present moment.

Yeh Hsin-Hsuan
Hsin-Hsuan has experience in 2D animation and stop-motion animation, and from 2023, has ventured into creating VR interactive experiences. Her work focuses on the experimental exploration of animation materials and visual language that interests people.