Hey film snob — yeah, you with the tiny glasses and pasty skin and the basset hounds called “Pauline” and “Kael.” Nice messenger bag. Really impress your afilmionado friends after attending the Los Angeles Taiwanese Film Festival . Taiwan has produced such directors as Ang Lee, Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang. The fest features the Taiwanese Academy Award contender Cape No. 7 , along with documentary and feature films exploring “a new take on an old martial arts film, where breakdancing replaces kung fu in a Taiwanese street dance/breakdance competition; a glimpse at the lives of Chiang Kai-shek's displaced soldiers; the estrangement of young lesbians in contemporary Taiwan; Asia's “King of Pop” Jay Chou in an epic romance about a piano prodigy; the design and creation of the fastest-running solar-powered car for a 3,000-kilometer race in Australia; creating new spawning grounds for squids; and a documentary about Taiwan's Golden Dance Age of the 1920s and '30s.” All free except for Cape No. 7.

Dec. 12-14, 2008

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