Umin Boya


Umin Boya, also known as Ma Chih-hsiang, is a Taiwanese aborigine writer, director and actor, and director of the historical baseball film Kano. He also starred in Wei Te-sheng's Seediq Bale.

Career

Acting

Boya has appeared in a number of Taiwanese films and TV dramas, his first film role in Sung Pe Liu's Angels of Vengeance. His first major role was in Wang Shaudi’s TV series Big Hospital, Little Doctor. In 2002, he appeared in Wen-tang Cheng's Somewhere Over the Dreamland and played "Ming-hsien" in Ming-tai Wang's Brave 20. In 2003, he appeared in the TV series Crystal Boys as A-Fong and Banquet where, for his work in both series, he received nominations for a Golden Bell Best Supporting Actor award. In 2004, he played the role of "Hsiao Chi" in Hong Kong film director Sylvia Chang's 20 30 40, and in 2008, he played the character of Liar #1's Father in Ya-che Yang's Orz Boyz. In 2009, he acted in the role of Lee An-Yi in the TV series Police Et Vous and Justice for Love.
In 2011, he starred as Temu Walis in Wei Te-sheng's historical epic, Seediq Bale, which was split into two parts in some jurisdictions: Part 1 and Part 2. He was nominated for a "Best Supporting Actor" award at the 2012 Asian Film Awards for his performance in the film. In 2012, he appeared as Hsiang in Taiwanese director Chao-jen Hsu's Together, and in 2014-2015, he appeared as the character "Canon" in the Taiwanese TV series Mr. Right Wanted.

Directing

Boya made his directing debut with the mini-series Promised Not to Cry, which he won a Golden Bell Award in the Best Director category.
In 2014, Boya made his feature film directorial debut with Kano, a historical period piece about Taiwan's legendary high school baseball team. Boya first got involved with the project when Wei Te-sheng mentioned doing a smaller film about baseball, which he had interest in because he was a former baseball player himself. The film was also written and produced by Wei Te-sheng and won Audience Awards at the Golden Horse Awards, the Osaka Asian Film Festival and the Taipei Film Festival. Kano is also the 6th highest grossing Taiwanese domestic film of all time.