Skip to main content
Eel film image; woman gripping a man in a hug from behind

Eel

Hé mán / 河鳗

Vanguard

This event has passed

North American Premiere

A young man leads a solitary existence, living and working in a landfill zone on an island just outside of Taipei. His world shifts when, one day, a mysterious, almost feral young woman floats into his life. The two are instantly drawn to each other, almost by an otherworldly force — but in the scorching heat, surrounded by waste, their budding intimacy takes some twists and turns as buried demons come to the fore. Ultimately, the primal takes hold and their bond deepens.

Visually alluring, with meticulously composed frames, this mesmerizing feature debut captures the beauty of Taipei’s less photogenic periphery. Its visceral spin on fated connections pulls the viewer in with seductive rhythms and sensory prowess where sharp and soft edges collide. Chu deftly blends the erotic with supernatural and regional symbolism, transmuting loneliness and desire into a raw, culturally rooted meditation on belonging.

 

Supported by

TAICCA logo

Media Partner

Range logo

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Devin Pan, Misi Ke, Chin-Yu Pan, Bella Chen, Mei-Hou Wu

Credits
Country of Origin

Taiwan

Year

2025

Language

In Taiwanese and Mandarin with English subtitles

Film Contact
Links
18+
102 min
Cinemas of Asia Drama Romance
Static Film & Visual Art Production

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Chu Chun-Teng, Susan Huang, Rita Chuang Chun-Chun

Producer

Susan Huang

Screenwriter

You Shann-Jiun, Chu Chun-Teng

Cinematography

Nguyễn Vinh Phúc

Editor

Alulu Kuo, Chu Chun-Teng

Production Design

Chang I-Feng

Original Music

Tôn Thất An

Chu Chun-Teng headshot

Chu Chun-Teng

Chu Chun-Teng majored in film directing and cinematography and received his MFA in fine art from Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2010. His works explore themes of individual existence, social hierarchy, and political conflict, reflecting the dilemmas of modern society. Spanning film and contemporary art, his works have been showcased at major festivals and art institutions worldwide, including the 7th Seoul International Film Festival, 2014 Taipei Biennial, Kunsthaus Essen, Shanghai Contemporary Art Museum, Glasgow Center for Contemporary Arts, and Herzliya Museum of Contemporary Art.

Photo by Li Yu-Chi

 

Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre

Day of Wrath

Dir. Carl Theodor Dreyer
97 min

Anna, the young second wife of a well-respected but much older pastor, falls in love with her stepson when he returns to their small seventeenth-century village. Stepping outside the bounds of the village's harsh moral code has disastrous results.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

House of Hope

Dir. Marjolein Busstra
93 min

"House of Hope" is the name of a Waldorf elementary school near Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, founded by Manar and her husband Milad. This documentary follows their efforts to go about their lives before, during, and after the events of October 7.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
NAZA
Naza film image; two people sitting in a foggy night with skyscrapers in the background

NAZA

Dir. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
80 min

NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

You Had to Be There

Dir. Nick Davis
98 min

In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Atonement
Atonement film image; person running through smoke

Atonement

Dir. Reed Van Dyk
118 min

A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
The Sandbox
The Sandbox film image; perspective from inside an open box with a face peering into it

The Sandbox

Dir. Kenya-Jade Pinto
90 min

Borders are the faultlines of the world. Kenya-Jade Pinto's doc examines how modern surveillance technology, bio-metrics and AI are combining to make land and sea borders as impenetrable as air travel, and suggests the unspoken cost is our own humanity.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre