Seediq Bale is a movie directed by the Taiwanese director 魏德聖 Wei Te-Sheng, released in 2011. It is based on the history event Wushe Incident (霧社事件) happened in Taiwan in 1930. It was the last major uprising led by Mona Rudo (莫那·魯道), against colonial Japanese force. The indigenous group Seediq (賽德克) is remembered deeply in this movie. In the language of Seediq, Seediq means the people of Seediq group or general people; Bale means real, so the title is literally Real Seediq or Real Men. The movie is divided into two parts-The Sun Flag (太陽旗) and The Rainbow Bridge (彩虹橋).
The Sun Flag tells how Seediq’s life was before and after Japanese governed Taiwan, and eventually the Seediq couldn’t resist Japanese oppression and decided to start the war. The Sun Flag literally means the national flag of Japan. The rainbow bridge is the path that Seediq will go through to see their ancestor after death. Therefore the second part of the movie is about how the Seediq reached the rainbow bridge.
In the movie, Mona Rudo tried to fight back when Japanese force just invaded, but then understood the pointless of opposing the powerful enemy. He has held back the urge to fight for so long until his sons and the others can’t stand to the depression anymore. The Seediq knows that the whole group may even be destroyed but is still determined.
As a battle that the consequence is already known, the Seediq uses the attack as an exchange to reach the rainbow bridge. They proceeds Headhunting (出草) during the revolt. 出草 is a tradition forbidden since Japanese governed the aboriginal. Apart from the members who join the force and sacrifice themselves during the war, women, elders, and children commit or are forced to suicide, so the warriors don’t have to worry about their families safety. In the end only few hundreds of Seediq survive.
Seediq uses their advantage in mountains and valleys to fight against their enemy. The location where Seediq lives is Central Mountain Range (中央山脈), where the mountains and narrow valleys cover most of it. The Seediq pushes the walls built up with stones down the cliffs to stop the enemy from entering their space.
They also have strengths that is much more than Japanese expected. Although victory is not what Seediq wants in this fight, I still feel emotionally sorry that they are defeated. They have strengths that is clearly stronger than their enemy but with a lower level of weapons and less member they can only fight for how they die, instead of gaining back how they lived.
Another reason that I feel sorry for Seediq is that some is tortured to death due to the poison gas bomb. The people who commit suicide don’t only because of their weakness but also the physical pain caused by injury. One of Mona Rudo’s son actually gets serious wound on the face and is so painful he asks for death and Mona Rudo has to finish his own son’s life.
The movie also describes the teenagers’ hopeless. The teenagers, Pawan Nawi (巴萬·那威) as the main character, volunteered to participate the uprising. But when their mothers and elders decide to suicide, they still collapse and want to stop the others from leaving. Failed to keep the families, they realised that the battle field is the last place for them to die with value.
味方藩 are the aboriginal who is close to and help Japanese during the battle. They support Japanese not only because their own revenge towards the Mona Rudo and his group, but is also provoked by Japanese. [小島源治你個賤人！！！！！！] However, during the riot, the leader Temu Walis (鐵木·瓦力斯) of the supporting group still speaks up his unwilling. [我很喜歡他這裡吐露的真心話啊！可是想不起來(哭)”我們不是你們的復仇道具之類的”] The group is even suspected and framed.
I was deeply impressed by the part close to the ending. When the riot is coming to an end, Japanese stops using might and starts dropping small red paper with message on it to convince the warrior to surrender. Mona Rudo and the few of the others just stand in the rain of red. There were some rhymes that is sung in the movie, and one of them is about the blossom of red flowers. Such an irony isn’t it? Mona Rudo sings and dances alone for a while and gives the leadership to the last son he has. Later, when the women who are held by Japanese are sent into mountain to convince the men to come back. The warriors do appear from the forest and start singing and dancing with women, but eventually they still refuse to go with women. In the end they slowly move back into forest while still singing and dancing. The daughter of Mona Rudo can only cries and seeing them disappear from the vision.
The ending of the movie only has description on the screen and few scenes of how the rest of warriors and Mona Rudo are gone. There is no dialogue. It was good for me to rethink what i have seen previously.
Apart from the sorrow I feel for the Seediq, I also feel the same for the victims other than them. The Japanese victims contains a large amount of children and women due to the event is taken in place while the sport games of primary school happens in Wushe. The teenagers of Seediq kills their Japanese teacher.
Chinese are not the target of 出草. This is an interesting …yeah, at this moment, the relationship between the aboriginal and Chinese/Taiwanese seems to be tensed but okay. It is shown in the movie that Seediq visits the Chinese village down the mountains sometimes to exchange some resources. Also after Japanese arrived, some scenes shows that Chinese and the aboriginal have a better relationship between them than with Japanese. Part of the reasons could be that they realise that they are under similar hardship.
The survival of Seediq. Here I want to specifically point out that the daughter of Mona Rudo has survived after the tragedy. She had attempted to suicide with the others but failed and was rescued by Japanese afterwards. I can feel the depression and hopelessness when she wakes up. She has expected to die and see her family, but now she is all alone and apart from her beloved.
A few soundtracks are very impressed to me. One of them is when Seediq has decided to start the war. The music contains the Seediq’s yelling and the traditional instrumental sound. The type of music is also not what I would usually hear in a movie, that is another effect that makes me remember it. The other is a theme that goes through the whole movie. It is a tone that telling something is rising or happening. The melody is softer and last longer, unlike the previous one which sounds strong and short. The later one yet gives me a feeling of something is being opened up. Some songs are sung by women; most of these themes are surrounded by the love and sadness towards children and men. The women know the upcoming war and understand that there is no way to stop the men going, so they sing their sorrow.
Apart from the music, the languages applied in the movie is remarkable. Chinese is not the main language that appears in the movie. The movie is presented with Seediq’s language and Japanese mostly. Chinese is not chosen for convenience. To me it shows the great respect to the Seediq.
The whole tragedy makes me think of the combination between different cultures. The conflict between the cultures surely is unavoidable, especially in the past. It is obvious that the weak side would lose to the powerful one. Under control, the sufferers could be pushed to limit (Mona Rudo and the others), either way, they may still tried to find peace among chaos (Hanaoka Ichiro and Hanaoka Jiro).
Hanaoka Ichiro and Hanaoka Jiro (花岡一郎 and 花岡二郎) are two Seediqs that are chosen by Japanese as successful examples toward other aboriginal. They accept Japanese education but yet still respect to their ancestry. In such condition they question themselves about where they should belong to. Their helplessness is strongly shown in the movie.
In a conclusion, I very enjoyed the culture and tradition, history that is brought into the movie. The costumes, the action, the set design, the emotion…etc.
The Seediq’s determination tells me that there is still time when people want to protect their pride to death rather than live.
While writing this posts, I have referred to many online resources (Wiki). If interested, please go to the English version of it to read the incident and the movie in details.
Seediq Bale
Wushe Incident
出草
花岡一郎
Even though I am very moved by this movie, from the others’ critiques it seems that the movie could have still confused the audience with some wrong explanation and knowledge. But the movie is still a very good reference for me to start the study of Seediq.
Here is a documentation of before and after the actors are decided. The actors had done some practice to open their mind without shyness. After the movie is confirmed to be produced, they visit the memorial of Mona Rudo to thank the history he had made.
I also want to thank the actors and director and other participants who have produced such incredible, thoughtful movie to remember the people in the past.
This writing is about the main points that give me emotion.
I tried to be serious with this movie but with my poor writing (either in Chinese or English) and feels about the movie I don’t think I can maintain this post’s quality very well.
This post wouldn’t be ruined so badly if I have completed it at once…
[Edit] I just found that the theme song is released on You Tube. Please enjoy. (Seems like there is no English sub)
Hi Year 2 