Ler Jiyuan’s First Taiwanese Series Takes Home Two Golden Bells

Ler Jiyuan’s First Taiwanese Series Takes Home Two Golden Bells

After a typhoon, a shelved project and a night at Taipei Music Center, the co-director of 《親密之海》 Islanders reflects on a journey that found him at exactly tte right moment.

Ler Jiyuan had a week he is unlikely to forget. Over the weekend, he lived through his first typhoon. On Monday night, 26 October, he walked into his first Golden Bell Awards.

The occasion was the 61st Golden Bell Awards, where 《親密之海》 Islanders, the first Taiwanese drama series Ler has co-directed, was in contention with 10 nominations. The series, which streams on CATCHPLAY+ and Amazon Prime Video, left with two of the night’s biggest honours: Best Miniseries, and Best Leading Actress in a Miniseries or Television Film for 瑞瑪席丹 Rima Zeidan.

For Ler, the sweetest moment came when the team went up together. “The competition was incredibly strong,” he notes, and he stepped onto the stage at 台北流行音樂中心 Taipei Music Center alongside his collaborators to accept the Best Miniseries award as a group.

A project at the right time

The win carries extra weight given where Ler was when the series found him. A project he had spent about a year and a half developing had just been shelved, and he was spiralling into depression. Then, as he puts it, almost like fate had intervened, 《親密之海》 arrived.

The series is adapted from 胡晴舫 Hu Qingfang’s novel 《群島》. The finished work keeps a distinctly 文藝 sensibility: poetic, atmospheric and deeply observant. It is a meditation on love, loneliness, desire and distance, and on the strange ways people become entangled with one another.

Taiwan, and the people in it

Ler speaks warmly of the island that hosted the production. He was inspired by its life and energy, its language and culture, and its rich natural landscapes. Above all he was inspired by his collaborators, and the talent, commitment and passion for cinema they brought to the work.

What he takes home

Asked what he is most grateful for, Ler doesn’t point to the trophies. He points to the friendships. “I made many good friends along the way,” he says, and he was already missing them as he boarded the flight back to Los Angeles.

His parting hope is simple: to meet them again soon, on another journey, “hopefully one that is just as crazy, risky and adventurous as this one.”

《親密之海》 Islanders is streaming on CATCHPLAY+ and Amazon Prime Video.