I was supposed to give a score of 7, but changed a bit after seeing the latter part of the film in theatre. Here's my own thought: It begins with Mouna being chased by another tribe's men in water and ends with almost of the dead male aboriginal characters marching together on the above, whether they're old rivalries in the woods or not. Surely the film surrounds the Wushe incident in Taiwan, but its materials are from the interviews with the remainders of Seediq and also based on a comic book...80 years have past for these people, so how many true memories can serve the elders well? At least I believed in those different men's and women's struggles posed in the film, because they are too real to make up. I was anticipating why and how the main character, Mouna Roudo, would find himself fighting the Japanese with no chance to win, and the director and plot writer, Te-Sheng Wei, did not disappoint me in the first part of the movie (namely 'The Sun Flag' of local theatrical release). But then the "comical-like" scenes start to be annoying...especially Mouna (performed by Chin-Tai Lin) always started to dance and sing before the big confrontations with the enemy, and near the end he and a little few men of his were fired by Japanese cannons on a drawbridge without any serious damages afterwards.
I discovered that the film lose some parts for a successful typical blockbuster in terms of war movies, yet more than of just that. Unfortunately I think the latter part 'The Rainbow Bridge' dwelled upon the outcome for Seediq people's belief of Gaya too much. What's worse, it really became a mess when Seediq, non-Seediq aborigines and Japanese had the fights 'within the fights' altogether during the final 30 minutes or so. You have to be very cool to follow them. I have to admit that these factors overall killed some numbers in my final rating of the film, and that's a pity for the 'biggest ever movie production cost of Taiwan'; Meaningless killings and stirring suicides may be seen within a comment of a certain number of viewers which the film tries to target with, mostly due to the vagueness of right and wrong the filmmaker wanted to convey. It's not a welcomed cliché that should be used in commercial films...only who knows how it is knows how.
The computer CG scenes I can promise you, on par with some war drama like 'Tae Guk Gi' and 'Letters from Iwo Jima'. Interestingly, they are all not the type of cinema that is all about unfolding the historical events, but with some extent of thinking of humanity mixed. However, like I said before, the comical-like scenes may not harm the authenticity of the real history for too much, but some of the untimely ones that stop me from hyperbolize how good the movie is like many locals do. Would it be a commercial success overseas? The title of this review implied a mixed, 'no answer'.
I discovered that the film lose some parts for a successful typical blockbuster in terms of war movies, yet more than of just that. Unfortunately I think the latter part 'The Rainbow Bridge' dwelled upon the outcome for Seediq people's belief of Gaya too much. What's worse, it really became a mess when Seediq, non-Seediq aborigines and Japanese had the fights 'within the fights' altogether during the final 30 minutes or so. You have to be very cool to follow them. I have to admit that these factors overall killed some numbers in my final rating of the film, and that's a pity for the 'biggest ever movie production cost of Taiwan'; Meaningless killings and stirring suicides may be seen within a comment of a certain number of viewers which the film tries to target with, mostly due to the vagueness of right and wrong the filmmaker wanted to convey. It's not a welcomed cliché that should be used in commercial films...only who knows how it is knows how.
The computer CG scenes I can promise you, on par with some war drama like 'Tae Guk Gi' and 'Letters from Iwo Jima'. Interestingly, they are all not the type of cinema that is all about unfolding the historical events, but with some extent of thinking of humanity mixed. However, like I said before, the comical-like scenes may not harm the authenticity of the real history for too much, but some of the untimely ones that stop me from hyperbolize how good the movie is like many locals do. Would it be a commercial success overseas? The title of this review implied a mixed, 'no answer'.