Taipei, he observed, has grown from "a sleepy city" to become "an amazing, buzzing and big city."

The bespectacled Wenders revealed that his biggest surprise was finding how "relaxed and easygoing" the people in Taipei are.

The Deutsches Kulturzentrum, also known as the German Cultural Center, arranged this visit by Wenders.

"I may have to come back a few times more to get used to stinky tofu," said the smiling Wenders yesterday.

One of the first things Wenders did was to go to the Shihda Night Market with young Taiwan-born director Arvin Chen two nights ago. Wenders has accepted the invitation to be the executive producer of Chen's "Page One Taipei." He liked the young man's script, he said. And so he will be his "guardian angel from Germany" in the film project to be subsidized by the Government Information Office by as much as NT$12 million and to be also supported by the Taipei City Government.

"I have watched Wim Wenders' films from childhood and I have seen how he portrays cities and people," said Chen, who grew up in northern California. "I feel very lucky to have him as my executive producer."

Chen's "MEI" won the Silver Bear for short film at the 2007 Berlin International Film Festival. Wenders said that a Silver Bear from the Berlin International Film Festival is something he has in common with Chen. They also share a love for movies that are portraits of cities, he said.

Wenders thought that it was a good idea to have someone not exactly from here but more of a foreigner to do a film about Taipei. This person would have a different perspective, he said.

Checking out the locations for the movie Chen is preparing to shoot next year as well as meeting the cast and crew have been on Wenders' agenda during this Taipei visit. But he will not be around during the actual filming. The Eslite Bookstore, the markets, the noodle shop, a couple of parks, the subway, the alleys and some dark corners have been picked by Chen.

Taipei Mayor Hau Long-bin appeared quite excited by the film project. He expressed the hope that it would eventually enable Taipei to shine internationally.

Mayor Hau offered Wenders and Chen some pineapple cakes yesterday. He also presented the German cinema director with a nice but empty gift box to take back to Berlin. Wenders quickly scribbled "Taipei Memories" on it.

Like Rainer Fassbinder and Werner Herzog, Wim Wenders has been a leading name of the new German cinema. But just like Taiwan's very own Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, he earned recognition abroad before gaining acceptance in his own country.

Wenders used three words to sum up the movies he made in his career, indicating the films dwelled on "love, search and identity."

The award-winning Wenders gave a remark yesterday, indicating he did not follow the commercial trend to make sex scenes de rigueur in film productions.

"I always thought sex didn't belong in a movie," said director Wim Wenders. "You never do it with the camera."

Young people, who keep sophisticated digital information systems in their bedrooms, think otherwise though.