The Great Buddha+


The Great Buddha+ is a 2017 Taiwanese dark comedy film written and directed by Huang Hsin-yao. It is Huang's feature film directorial debut. It won the top prize at the 19th Taipei Film Festival and received 10 nominations at the 54th Golden Horse Awards, winning Best Adapted Screenplay and Best New Director for Huang. It was released in theaters on October 13, 2017. It was selected as the Taiwanese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 91st Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

Premise

The night security guard at a Buddha statue factory along with his friend, a recyclables collector, become entangled in a web of dark secrets after stumbling upon videos that document the promiscuous meetings of the factory's wealthy owner.

Cast

The film is an extension of director Huang Hsin-yao's 2014 Golden Horse Award-nominated short, The Great Buddha. According to Huang, the inclusion of "+" in the feature's title is a reference to the Apple smartphone iPhone 6 Plus, which was released around the time when he began expanding his short to a feature. In an interview, Huang also clarified that The Great Buddha+ was not shot on iPhone.

Awards and nominations