Rice Media Center is hosting a film festival from Taiwan -- the other China -- that gives you a chance for a closeup look at films made there in the mid-1980s.

Entitled Taiwan New Cinema: 30 Years On, the mini festival consists of three different films each shown at 7 p.m. at the Rice Media Center, 6100 Main starting Friday, February 22.

As described by the Taiwan Ministry of Culture in Houston, the films are:

A Time to Live, A Time to Die - Director: Hou Hsiao-Hsien Screening: Friday, February 22.

Hou Hsiao-Hsien's early "Taiwan New Wave" masterpiece tells the story of two decades in the life of a family that moves from mainland China to Taiwan. A coming of age story both touching and tragic, it follows a family's travails adjusting to exile and to the difficulties of pulling up stakes. New Wave films examine many of the important issues facing Taiwan society in the early 1980s, such as the struggle against poverty, urbanization, and conflicts with political authority.

Kuei-Mei, A Woman - Director: Chang Yi Screening: Saturday, February 23

Director Yi Chang, one of the contributors to the groundbreaking anthology In Our Time, makes effective use of the long-take style favored by the "Taiwan New Wave", but he takes a more direct approach to storytelling in this tremendously moving saga of a woman whose shifting fortunes reflect the history of modern Taiwan. Married with three children, Kuei-Mei must bear the burden of her whole family while her husband squanders their limited resources gambling. This film was made in 1985 during a time of significant cultural and political change in Taiwan.

In Our Time - Directors: Edward Yang, Chang Yi, Ko I-Chen, and Tao Te-Chen Screening: Sunday, February 24

This 1982 film is often considered the beginning of the rejuvenation of Taiwanese Cinema. Also know as the "Taiwan New Wave", known for realistic, down-to-earth, and sympathetic portrayals of Taiwanese life where the conventional drama structure, building to a climax point, was abandoned. This rejuvenation in Taiwan film occurred during a time of political change in Taiwan away from authoritarianism and toward democracy. This omnibus of four short films traces the lives of Taiwanese from the '50s to the '80s. The stories vary from a boy's relation to his toy dinosaur to a young girl's fascination with the renter upstairs. Starring Sylvia Chang (Eat Drink Man Woman).

The screening of A Time to Live, A Time to Die will be preceded by a reception from 6-7 p.m..