Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

This article is about the film. For the album, see Seediq Bale (album).

See also Legend of Rainbow Warriors, based on the book Warriors of the Rainbow, which is unrelated to Seediq Bale

Seediq Bale Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
The English theatrical poster of Seediq Bale
Directed by	Wei Te-Sheng
Produced by	John Woo Jimmy Huang
Written by	Wei Te-Sheng
Starring	Umin Boya Masanobu Ando Landy Wen Irene Luo Vivian Hsu
Music by	Ricky Ho
Cinematography	Chin Ting-Chang
Distributed by	The ARS Film Production Fortissimo Films
Release date(s)	Part 1:_September 9, 2011 (2011-09-09) Part 2:_September 30, 2011 (2011-09-30) (Taiwan) Part 1:_November 17, 2011 (2011-11-17) Part 2:_December 1, 2011 (2011-12-01) (Hong Kong) Single version:_February 17, 2012 (2012-02-17) (United States)
Running time	Part 1: 144 minutes Part 2: 132 minutes Both: 276 minutes Single version: 155 minutes
Country	Taiwan
Language	Seediq, Japanese, Taiwanese, Chinese Mandarin
Budget	NT$ 700 - 750 million (US$ 23 - 25 million)
Box office	Taiwan: NT$ 900 million (US$ 30 million) Hong Kong:

How "Seediq Bale" is pronounced?

Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Chinese: 賽德克‧巴萊; pinyin: Sàidékè Balái, Seediq:  Seediq Bale , literally, Real Seediq or Real Men) is a 2011 Taiwanese historical drama epic film directed by Wei Te-Sheng and produced by John Woo, based on Wushe Incident in central Taiwan in 1930.

The film is divided into two parts - the full versions in Taiwan, the part 1 is called "太陽旗" (The Flag of Sun), and the part 2 is called "彩虹橋" (The Bridge of Rainbow), both running at a total of up to four and half hours.

The film was shown in competition at the 68th Venice International Film Festival and was selected as a contender for nomination for the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film in 2011, to be chosen in February 2012. and was one of nine films shortlisted to advance to the next round of voting for nomination. But the original two parts are combined into the single cut version; its running time is two and half hours.

The film has been been compared to the 1995 film Braveheart by Mel Gibson by the media in Taiwan.

Plot

During the Japanese rule of Taiwan since 1895, the Seediq nation of Taiwanese aborigines were forced to lose their own culture and give up their faith. Men were subject to harsh labor and kept from traditional hunting; whereas women had to serve the Japanese policemen and their families by doing the household work and giving up their traditional weaving work. Above all, they were forbidden to tattoo their faces. And these tattoos were seen as the Seediq's traditional belief to transform themselves into Seediq Bale ("real men"). Mona Rudao, the protagonist, witnessed the repression by the Japanese over a period of 30 years.

Sometime between autumn and winter 1930, when the slave labor is at its harshest, a young Seediq couple are married and a joyful party is thrown. At the same time, a newly appointed Japanese policeman goes on his inspection tour to this tribe. Mona Rudao's first son, Tado Mona, offers wine to the policeman with gusto, but is in return beaten up because his hands were considered not clean enough. With anger, Tado Mona and his brother Baso Mona attack the policeman. And from that day onward, their tribe is living in the shadow of being the object of revenge by the Japanese.

In a few days, a group of youth surround Mona Rudao. They strongly request him to lead the retaliation against the Japanese. Mona Rudao struggles for a long time between extending his fellow's lives and fighting back for dignity, until he sees these youngster's faces - clear without Seediq's tattoos - that he made up his mind. He tells the youngsters, "Japanese troops out-number the stones in Dakusui River, more intensive than the leaves in the forest, but my determination fighting them is ever stronger than Mt. Kire."

"Children! On the tip of the Rainbow Bridge led to home of our ancestor's spirits, there is another beautiful hunting range. Our ancestors are all there! Remember, only brave spirits can enter this place, and we can never lose it. My fellows, let us hunt the heads of our enemies, and we wash our spirits with blood so that we walk the Rainbow Bridge to be always with our ancestors."

The film Seediq Bale depicts the Wushe Incident, which occurred in central Taiwan during the Japanese rule. When the Seediq Bale, believing in the Rainbow, and the Japanese, believing in the Sun, met one another, they fought. The leader of Seediq Bale, Mona Rudao, led 300 warriors fighting against 3000 Japanese troopers.

Cast

• Lin Ching-Tai as Mona Rudao
• Da Ching as Mona Rudao (young)
• Umin Boya as Temu Walis
• Masanobu Ando as Kojima Genji
• Landy Wen as Mahung Mona
• Irene Luo
• Vivian Hsu
• Chie Tanaka
• Ma Ju-Lung

Production

Development

According to an interview, Wei's idea to make Seediq Bale began in 1996, when he watched a news story about an aboriginal group protesting. The group was from Hualian and came to Taipei to demand lands to be return from the government. Wei then saw the next story questioning whether the sovereignty over Hong Kong should return to China or Republic of China in 1997. Wei found this ironic, and the next day he went to a bookstore to read about aborigines. There he found Qiu Ruolong's comic book on the Wushe Incident. Wei became interested in chief Mona Rudao and why he launched the war. From 1997 to 1999, Wei wrote and revised a screenplay, and looked up historical background.

In 2000 Wei finished the screenplay, which won the Excellent Film Screenplay award from Government Information Office (GIO). In 2003, Wei raised NTD 2.5 million, which he used to shoot a five-minute demonstration film. The film was sounded by Tu Duu-chih, edited by Bowen Chen (both are awards winning filmmakers, and both later also worked on the complete film). The short was starred by actor Liao Chin-sheng (廖金生), actress Tseng Yu-chun (曾玉春) and others. The film was screened on November 24, 2003, and the goal was to raise USD 7 million (about NTD 250 million). Wei said that he had taken a one minute version to Busan International Film Festival and impressed people from Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. (In 2008 Wei said his wife supported his decision to spend 2 million on the short film when the crew was against him)

The screening failed to raise money. In February, 2004, Wei told a reporter that a friend had put the short film on Internet, which attracted supports. Wei insisted his budget to be NTD 200 million, and said that he began to accept small donations. Wei also promised that if the film is made, the income will be shared with all donors, and that the share is in proportion to the donation. However Wei also said that if the film is not made, the donation will not be returned and will be given to aboriginal groups. Wei said the plan is endorsed and supervised by bank and film critic Wen Tien-Hsiang (聞天祥).

According to an interview in 2008, director Chen Kuo-fu told Wei that in order to earn investors' trust, Wei should make another film first. So Wei turned to make Cape No. 7. In Cape No. 7 Wei chose non-famous actors, a story with multiple lines, and colonial period references to demonstrate the feasibility of these three elements.

In 2008, the success of Cape No. 7 brought Wei money and fame, and Wei restarted promotion and fund raise for Seediq Bale. But fund raise for Seediq Bale was still difficult. In 2009, Wei suggested the the difficulty is that though the success of Cape No. 7 attracted investors who are new to the filmmaking business, they were not comfortable with uncertainty involved. In 2011 Wei looked back and said: "I quickly realized that potential investors were looking more for Cape No. 8 than Seediq Bale." The investors were skeptical of the subject of Seediq Bale, and doubted if the success of Cape No. 7 can be repeated.

Teng Sue-feng in a report in February 2009 suggested that the budget of the film is "NTD 330 million", and that "Wei already has almost a third of" this budget. Teng points out that, besides the profit from ticket sales, Cape No. 7 also earned Wei a subsidy of about 104 million from Government Information Office for the next film.

However Typhoon Morakot impacted Taiwan in August 2009. Tu Duu-chih said the typhoon destroyed the film's set and sent the estimated budget from NTD 200 million to 600 million. By November 2011, Peng reported the budget to be 700 million, and the grant from GIO was 130 million.

Filming

The crew built a set in Arrow Studio in Linkou, New Taipei City to recreate scenes of Wushe Village in 1930s. Taneda Yohei, a production designer from Japan, is the artistic director supervising the art team. The set had 36 houses. Some houses had interior decoration and props of the period. The set costed NTD 80 million. After the filming was completed, the set was open to visitors for a while.

In May 2009, the casting met difficulties of finding aboriginal extras and actors for a war epic. At the time the film was set to be released in mid-2010. The filming hired 400 technicians from Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, and hired 1500 non-professional as actors. The filming took 10 months and was completed on September 5, 2011. Some scenes were filmed on mountain slope or in river, with actors wearing little cloths. Rain, coldness, slippery slopes and running were challenging to both the crew and cast. Injuries were frequent. Besides technical problems, problem of financing is constant. Wei said that he had to direct the film and raise the money at the same time, and the company often ran out of money for payrolls and props. Polly Peng reports that:

Wei's film company frequently couldn't pay the crew on time [...] the Taiwanese scenic designers went on strike, the Korean action team just left, and the Japanese art team refused to hand over completed designs. But despite this, Wei drew on the surprising resources underneath his refined facade, finding ways to push through.

According to Wei, the combination of professional and non-professional cast created right chemistry. Wei was also satisfied with the performance of two non-professional actors playing young and older Mona Rudao. The film's use of Japanese and Seediq language was also a challenge to non-professional actors.

Release

In September 2011, Seediq Bale had its world premiere at the 68th Venice International Film Festival, but the original two parts are combined into the one cut version and its running time is two and half hours. It also was shown at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival in September 2011.

Reception

Early reaction to the movie has noted both the realism of its violence (which is due to the historical accuracy of its depictions of battle), and its undertone of Taiwanese nationalism. A review in The Economist avers that the film "[q]uite probably... has the highest number of graphic beheadings of any film anywhere. But they are faithful historical depictions." As Walter Russell Mead further commented, "This type of movie, done well, can inspire whole societies with nationalist pride, reinforce the prominence of folk heroes (including, quite often, violent ones), and strengthen a people’s togetherness at the expense of foreigners."

Justin Chang of Variety describes the film as a "wildly ambitious rumble-in-the-jungle battle epic arrives bearing so heavy a burden of industry expectations, one wishes the results were less kitschy and more coherent", but "still, the filmmaking has a raw physicality and crazy conviction it's hard not to admire." Chang also writes "In terms of recent epic cinema, the primitive warfare in Warriors of the Rainbow recalls that of Apocalypto, minus Mel Gibson's sense of pacing and technique" and the "chaotic combo of hard-slamming edits, gory mayhem and Ricky Ho's forever-hemorrhaging score makes the picture simply exhausting to watch over the long haul." On the positive aspects, Chang noted "there's an impressive degree of variation and anthropological detail in the weaponry and fighting techniques, from the numerous implied decapitations (the Seediq's chief m.o.) to the guerrilla assaults in the tropical terrain they know so well." Chang however criticized the film's use of special effects as "generally substandard throughout" and writes the "occasional shots of CGI rainbows -- that title is unfortunately literal -- send the film momentarily spiraling into camp."

Deborah Young of The Hollywood Reporter describes the film as "stunning to look at, authentic to a fault and a little tedious to follow", and praised the action set pieces as "spectacular, almost non-stop sequence of grisly hand-to-hand combat scenes" and "No martial arts here, but skillfully realistic fighting with spears and machetes, guns and cannons, which spare no one." However Young also states that "no matter how ingeniously it is varied, the non-stop fighting becomes oppressive in the long run" and the film's best scenes are in its "quieter moments."

Alan Harris gave the film three out of five stars and states "This is an extremely bloodthirsty film, with more beheadings than any other movie I can name, and scenes of carnage for most of its two and a half hour running time." However Harris states "The story does not like complexity – the Japanese are almost universally portrayed as strutting hiss-boo villains or as hapless cannon fodder."

See also

• Wushe Incident of 1930: the last major uprising against colonial Japanese forces in Taiwan.
• Seediq people: a group of Taiwanese aborigines living Nantou County and Hualien County.
• Mona Rudao: the Seediq chief who led the uprising.
• List of submissions to the 84th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of Taiwanese submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

External links

• Official website
• Official Blog
• Movie Trailer HD - TIFF
• Seediq Bale at the Internet Movie Database