Last week I went to see a Taiwanese Movie "Sadeeq Bale"(2011) at a cinema in Tokyo. These days Cinema viewers in Japan are on the decline. Moreover this one is, to us, on a gloomy topic, a rebellion against the occupying Japanese. It is also a long one, almost five hours including an intermission. I have not, therefore, expected to see a large crowd. But that is exactly what I saw. It was a comparatively small cinema, but its 145 seats were full and some viewers were standing on the wall.
I kept wondering why, but I got no answer. An easy one would be that some of them are from Taiwan itself, and it is difficult to tell a Taiwanese from a Japanese. But this is not very convincing, since it was not prohibited in Taiwan.
The story concentrated on what happened at a place called Musha(in Japanese) in the interior, and therefore, mountainous part of the Island on 27 October 1930. It was a massacre of the Japanese who gathered there for the children's athletic meeting.
But who rose in a rebellion? The Island had been under the Japanese for a third of a century at that time. The Japanese gradually infiltrated the mountainous regions inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, not the Han Chinese. The Japanese tried to give them letters and language, school and postal systems, industries such as cutting timbers, in short tried to civilize and assimilate them, ignoring their own culture and way of life.
Prejudice, discrimination, and outrageous arrogance on the part of the Japanese were the order of the day. The indigenous peoples were a very proud stock. The Sadeeq was one of the tribes. They valued the defending of their hunting ground in the hills. The tattoo on the man's face is a sign of bravery. A man hopes to be a true man(Bale), and it is a woman's duty to make a man like that. They have also in mind the idea of 'crossing the bridge of rainbow' to go near their ancestors. These are their values and the colonial rule comes in conflict with them and try to crush them. They, the 'barbarians', have been in the end cornered, and ultimately rose against the oppressors.
The second half of the movie is the story of attacks and counter-attacks. The rebels, or rather the legitimate residents of the land, fought bravely, just like the Vietnamese during their anti-American war, making use of the jungles, streams, etc. The Japanese mobilized guns. They used poison gas. Only the tanks and warships were not to be deployed. Most of the people committed suicide, but the supreme leader of the tribe, saying that 'I do not afford to be captured', was not to be located by his pursuers.
One difference between this story and the Vietnamese fighting is that while the latter was led by the modernized elements and the modernized thinking of the society, the former was not. For one thing the former took place at a much more isolated region, and one generation earlier. But these characteristics will pose some more questions to the social scientists.
I kept wondering why, but I got no answer. An easy one would be that some of them are from Taiwan itself, and it is difficult to tell a Taiwanese from a Japanese. But this is not very convincing, since it was not prohibited in Taiwan.
The story concentrated on what happened at a place called Musha(in Japanese) in the interior, and therefore, mountainous part of the Island on 27 October 1930. It was a massacre of the Japanese who gathered there for the children's athletic meeting.
But who rose in a rebellion? The Island had been under the Japanese for a third of a century at that time. The Japanese gradually infiltrated the mountainous regions inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Taiwan, not the Han Chinese. The Japanese tried to give them letters and language, school and postal systems, industries such as cutting timbers, in short tried to civilize and assimilate them, ignoring their own culture and way of life.
Prejudice, discrimination, and outrageous arrogance on the part of the Japanese were the order of the day. The indigenous peoples were a very proud stock. The Sadeeq was one of the tribes. They valued the defending of their hunting ground in the hills. The tattoo on the man's face is a sign of bravery. A man hopes to be a true man(Bale), and it is a woman's duty to make a man like that. They have also in mind the idea of 'crossing the bridge of rainbow' to go near their ancestors. These are their values and the colonial rule comes in conflict with them and try to crush them. They, the 'barbarians', have been in the end cornered, and ultimately rose against the oppressors.
The second half of the movie is the story of attacks and counter-attacks. The rebels, or rather the legitimate residents of the land, fought bravely, just like the Vietnamese during their anti-American war, making use of the jungles, streams, etc. The Japanese mobilized guns. They used poison gas. Only the tanks and warships were not to be deployed. Most of the people committed suicide, but the supreme leader of the tribe, saying that 'I do not afford to be captured', was not to be located by his pursuers.
One difference between this story and the Vietnamese fighting is that while the latter was led by the modernized elements and the modernized thinking of the society, the former was not. For one thing the former took place at a much more isolated region, and one generation earlier. But these characteristics will pose some more questions to the social scientists.
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