Before The Man from Island West, non- grant-funded movies always needed investment from film companies, but filmmakers often felt that the investors interfered too much. By raising the money himself, Huang Ming-chuan was obviously able to be more "independent." Huang's approach seemed to promise a third way for movie production, and this aroused interest in the film community.
只不過在《西部來的人》之前，台灣電影必須依賴片商投資或輔導金，但創作者往往覺得出資老闆干涉過多，而黃明川獨自籌資，顯然更為「獨立」，也似乎開創了第三條路，於是電影界開始討論獨立製片的可能性。