WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE is a home-grown historical action epic from Taiwan, featuring the story of an Aboriginal tribe who rise up against their Japanese oppressors during the early 20th century. It starts off on a rather dodgy note, asking the viewer to be interested in and accept as protagonist a man, Mona Rudao, who is introduced to the viewer when he kills and steals from some innocent tribesmen. Thankfully things then jump forward twenty years or so, and it all becomes straightforward.
The first thing to note is that I saw the international cut of this film, in which two parts are condensed down into one whole. While I enjoyed it on a superficial level, I have to say that there were too many problems with it for me to want to seek out the full version. The main issue I had is that the main tribe of characters are completely unsympathetic. They're headhunters, and when the Japanese describe them as 'savages' you tend to agree with them. I'm afraid I was on the side of the Japanese throughout in this one.
Elsewhere, the film is ridiculously one-sided in showing the Japanese to be a cowardly and easily-beaten foe, except when the text comes up at the end you see that things were completely different to the fantasy portrayed here. I did like the look of the film, although it's variously influenced by the likes of APOCALYPTO, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, BRAVEHEART, THE LAST SAMURAI, and BANG RAJAN, without ever quite giving the viewer a flavour of its own.
The action is quite well done, however, although marred by cheap CGI as is the case with so many eastern films these days. The scene in which the tribe rises up to attack the Japanese garrison is the highlight, really bloodthirsty and hair-raising stuff. But in the end, the lack of likable characters and the sheer ridiculousness of some moments (like the bratty kid running amok with the heavy weaponry) stopped me enjoying it too much.
The first thing to note is that I saw the international cut of this film, in which two parts are condensed down into one whole. While I enjoyed it on a superficial level, I have to say that there were too many problems with it for me to want to seek out the full version. The main issue I had is that the main tribe of characters are completely unsympathetic. They're headhunters, and when the Japanese describe them as 'savages' you tend to agree with them. I'm afraid I was on the side of the Japanese throughout in this one.
Elsewhere, the film is ridiculously one-sided in showing the Japanese to be a cowardly and easily-beaten foe, except when the text comes up at the end you see that things were completely different to the fantasy portrayed here. I did like the look of the film, although it's variously influenced by the likes of APOCALYPTO, LAST OF THE MOHICANS, BRAVEHEART, THE LAST SAMURAI, and BANG RAJAN, without ever quite giving the viewer a flavour of its own.
The action is quite well done, however, although marred by cheap CGI as is the case with so many eastern films these days. The scene in which the tribe rises up to attack the Japanese garrison is the highlight, really bloodthirsty and hair-raising stuff. But in the end, the lack of likable characters and the sheer ridiculousness of some moments (like the bratty kid running amok with the heavy weaponry) stopped me enjoying it too much.