Te-Sheng Wei

Born in 1969, Te-Sheng's film career began when he got a job in a small production house. Then he became an assistant in Edward Yang's film studio in 1995. When Yang was filming "Mahjong" (1996), he was promoted to assistant director from a grip assistant. From 1995 to 1998, he had shot shorts including "Face in the Evening" (1995), "Three Dialogues" (1996) and "Before Dawn" (1997), and all three films had won Golden Harvest Award for Film and Digital Video. Moreover, his 1999 16 mm film "About July" won great reviews from film critics in Taiwan, and was honored with a Special Mention from the Alcan Dragons And Tigers Award For Young Cinema at the Vancouver International Film Festival. He was also the associate producer of "Double Vision" (2002), produced by Columbia Pictures Film Production Asia. In 2004, he raised 2.5 million NT dollars by himself and shot the teaser of "Seediq Bale," in order to further raise 200 million dollars for the finance of shooting the complete film. He is good at manipulating dramatic elements and shaping characters, which create more tension and levels in his films. Moreover, to overcome the predicament of unable to produce big budget films, which is due to the restricted finance in Taiwan's film industry, he always endeavors to prove the talent and ability of Taiwanese filmmakers. Although he failed to raise the money needed to shoot "Seediq Bale," the vast scenery and epic atmosphere presented in the film teaser surprised and amazed the film circle in Taiwan. This shows his unquestionable ability to create films. "Cape No. 7" is the highest grossing film ever produced in Taiwan surpassing even Ang Lee's "Lust: Caution" and "Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon" and is on its way to becoming the highest-grossing film ever in Taiwanese box-office history. "Cape No. 7" is also the winner of the Grand Prize of the 2008 Taipei Award, the winner of Grand Prize of the 4th Asian Marine Film Festival in Japan as well as the winner of Best Narrative Feature of 28th Hawaii International Film Festival.