1895 Formosa (2008, Taiwan)
This is a commendable film about a 5 or 6 month period in 1895 in Taiwan's history, between China's cession of Taiwan to Japan, through the Treaty of Shimonoseki after the Sino-Japanese War, and Japan's colonial control of the island.
The film focuses on the insurgency waged by local Taiwanese militias, after the ruling mainland Qing Dynasty officials and military fled after the landing of Japanese forces and initial skirmishes which made it apparent that resisting the Japanese would be fruitless.
By "local Taiwanese militias", that's a point that I'm not qualified to clarify because they were comprised of various ethnic groups that I'm not clear on, and I don't know anything about the language variations or ethnic history, so I don't even know what language(s) they're speaking. I will say that it is great that the film was shot using local dialects. The insurgency was waged by both indigenous Taiwanese (of Polynesian descent) and Taiwanese of historical mainland descent, one group of which is Hakka (apparently both of my grandparents were full-blooded Hakka. I don't know what that means, but it isn't impossible that my ancestors were involved).
The film was OK, I would recommend it just because of the little known history it covers, but it does suffer from several problems.
First of all, the portrayal of the Japanese is incomprehensible and I can only cynically believe that it was because the director didn't want to offend Japanese movie audiences. The Japanese are portrayed as beneficent governors with a poetic sheen; the military is professional and disciplined – even to their disadvantage on the battlefield.
The problem is it totally removes the motivation of the insurgency. Why are the Taiwanese fighting if the Japanese Imperial administration looks to be so enlightened? You have the Taiwanese saying, "
I would believe it if the Japanese military in 1895 wasn't as rapacious as it would become as a war machine in World War II. In 1895, it was just proving itself as a match to Western powers, but it was holding itself to Western standards of military engagement. However, I also believe in its drive to prove itself to the West, it was highly efficient and brutal when deemed necessary. This movie kid-gloves this likely aspect.
Second of all, the scope of the movie is focused on one militia group and the family dramas involved, but the leaders of this militia group are considered national heroes of the movement. It would have been better if the film mentioned that it was, indeed, a widespread movement. Scenes of scores of Japanese soldiers being killed and only individual militia members dying betrays the 12,000-14,000 Formosans who died for their country.
Just a comment or two on the trailer for the movie in the link above, the caption that says "A struggle of live and death" must have been written by one of the subtitlers of the movie.
Seriously, sections of the English subtitles in the movie are done by a non-native English speaker and apparently weren't proofread. Sometimes they are so uncomprehensible, I could only just try to get the impression of what was trying to be conveyed by whatever words appeared. To me, that reflects poorly on the film and the director, and obviously the intention to not offend Japanese audiences wasn't extended to English speakers.
Finally, the caption "A holocaust that changed everything", I don't know, if I had any real affinity towards being Taiwanese or national pride, perhaps, I would feel a need to apologize to Jews for the tasteless misuse of the word. The Formosan insurgency and the Japanese response to take control of the island that they felt was rightfully theirs amounted to no holocaust.
However, if the caption in the trailer refers to the scene immediately afterwards of pigs being butchered, OK, maybe there was a holocaust. I feel that way everytime I walk through a morning market in Taiwan with butchered pigs and chickens galore.
Nominal fresh rating of 6 out of 10 tomatoes, taking into account the insult of the English subtitles. Even otherwise I wouldn't give it more than 7 stars, though. Watchable, but not a must-see. Recommended for anyone interested in Taiwan/Chinese history.
Secret (不能說的秘密) (2007, Taiwan)
This movie is the directorial debut of Taiwanese super popstar Jay Chou. I'm no fan of Jay Chou from what I've seen on MTV and YouTube (although he had one entertaining video of milk-drinking cowboys), so his name was no inspiration for me to watch this film. He also stars in the leading male role of this music film, which made me think this might be some self-indulgent ego-wank.
I watched this film knowing nothing about it aside from Jay Chou and that is was a romance, not my favorite of movie genres. And for most of the movie it seemed like a straight-forward romance, but incredibly unlikely and unconvincing and I was ready to turn it off more than once.
But then there's a twist! Where the "secret" comes in. Suddenly the movie had potential. It looked like it might become interesting and that all of the unlikeliness might have some reason and meaning behind it.
It was a major twist for me, knowing nothing about the film – although I think a general viewer that would have been interested in this film and would have learned a little about it would have known it. But I'm not going to give anything away.
Suffice it to say that the intriguing aspect which demanded a second viewing to see how everything fits together didn't pan out. The pieces don't fit together or are forced together in ridiculous circumstances and premises.
Still, it was watchable and Jay Chou's direction and acting are commendable, albeit they won't have me liking him as a popstar. It was OK enough for me to buy the DVD used from Blockbusters for my local Taiwan film collection that I'm trying to amass to bring back to the U.S.
If I bring nothing back with me to the U.S. to give my brothers' children about their heritage, at least I'll have some films to give them some taste. Nominal fresh rating of 6 out of 10 tomatoes.
