KANO Movie Box Office Tops NT$100 Million, Young Players Return to Taiwan in Triumph

(Central News Agency reporter Hsu Hui, Taipei, March 8) The domestic film "KANO" has officially topped NT$100 million in box office across Taiwan. The cast and crew returned to Taiwan in triumph today from the Osaka Film Festival and immediately split into two groups to thank audiences at theaters in Taipei and Taoyuan.

Since "KANO" was released, its cumulative box office across Taiwan had reached NT$105 million as of yesterday. Director Umin Boya, whose first directorial feature film has smoothly crossed NT$100 million, said, "We are a team, and this is the result of the whole team. Although I am happy personally, I still cannot relax. I hope more audiences will hurry into theaters to watch 'KANO'."

"KANO," which served as the opening film of this year's Osaka Film Festival, was publicly screened for the first time in Japan yesterday. After watching it, all 500 Japanese audience members were moved to choke up, and many female viewers were in tears. When the ending music began, the theater erupted in five minutes of applause.

Even the grandson of Kondo Hyotaro, the coach of the Kagi Agricultural and Forestry team in the film, attended the screening. After watching the movie, he specially went into the crowd to shake hands, thank, and take photos with producer Wei Te-Sheng, director Umin Boya, and lead actor Masatoshi Nagase. He said he was very moved to see his grandfather's story.

After the screening ended, Wei Te-Sheng, Umin Boya, Masatoshi Nagase, and the players in the film entered the venue to greet the audience, and the hall twice erupted in five to six minutes of applause. 1030308