Warriors of the Rainbow (2011)

An indigenous clan-based people living in harmony with nature find their way of life threatened when violent interlopers from another culture arrive, intent on seizing their natural resources and enslaving them.

Director:

Te-Sheng Wei

Writer:

Te-Sheng Wei (screenplay)

Stars:

Masanobu Andô, Jun'ichi Haruta, Sabu Kawahara

9 wins & 20 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Nolay Piho	...	Mona Rudao (as Lin Ching-tai)
Chih-Hsiang Ma	...	Temu Walis (as Umin Boya)
Masanobu Andô	...	Genji Kojima, Constable at Tonbara clan
Sabu Kawahara	...	General Yahiko Kamada
Vivian Hsu	...	Obing Tadao aka Hatsuko Takayama
Mei-Ling Lo	...	Obing Nawi aka Hanako Kawano
Landy Wen	...	Mahung Mona (Mona's Daughter)
Da-Ching	...	Mona Rudao - Young
Pawan Nawi	...	Chief Rudao Luhe, Mona's Father
Yakau Kuhon	...	Tado Mona (Mona's Eldest Son)
Pawan Neyung	...	Baso Mona (Mona's Younger Son) (as Lee Shih-chia)
Yuan-Jie Lin	...	Pawan Nawi
Chih-Wei Cheng	...	Biho Sapo
Yi-Fan Hsu	...	Ichiro Hanaoka aka Dakis Nomin (as Bokeh Kosang)
Soda Voyu	...	Jiro Hanaoka aka Dakis Nawi

Storyline

During the Japanese rule of Taiwan, the Seediq 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 ("true humans"). 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 ...

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Genres:

Action | Drama | History

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site

Country:

Taiwan

Language:

Aboriginal Japanese Hokkien

Release Date:

9 September 2011 (Taiwan)

Also Known As:

Warriors of the Rainbow

Box Office

Budget:

TWD 700,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

ARS Film Production, Central Motion Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

144 min 154 min (international) 156 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Taiwan's official submission to the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards 2012. To meet Academy regulations, the four-and-half-hour full version of the diptych was submitted as one entry.

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Quotes

Ichiro Hanaoka aka Dakis Nomin: [Asking Jiro/Dakis Nawi before performing seppuku] Jiro, are we subjects of Japan's Mikado... , or the descendants of the Seediq ancestors?
Jiro Hanaoka aka Dakis Nawi: Do it. Cut it up and end your conflicts right here and now. We don't have to go anywhere once we're dead. Let's both be free wandering spirits.

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Connections

Followed by Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Part 2: The Rainbow Bridge (2011)

User Reviews

voice of the native

I walked out of the cinema with both surprise and worry. I'm worried because maybe this is not a very good film, especially not a good "commercial film" to make both ends meet, but I'm really glad to see that Te-Sheng Wei can still insist on his idea even in such a big production.

Before going to the theater, my first concern was whether it would become a stereotypical nationalism or humanism film, because The Wushe Incident had been represented so many times in our history class in Taiwan that it seemed to be too difficult to make this film without compromising on political correctness, but Te-Sheng Wei made it！

Sàidékè balái presented a mass of killing and death, not in a humanism or Han Chinese Nationalism way, but from the aspect of the Seediq. I have heard people arguing if it is necessary to have so much violence in this film, but I have to say that the value of peace or anti-war is the main stream nowadays but not so to the traditional Seediq that time. Therefore, I think the director is not a moral relativist, he just chose not to judge the past with today's value, and resisted the mainstream that drowned the voice of the minority.

It impressed me that there was little Chinese or Taiwanese through out this film. Instead, the film is composed of Seediq language and Japanese. We should cherish it that 80 years after the The Wushe Incident, we can finally see a film which represents historical event not based on the authority opinion but on people who didn't lead the history, i.e. the native.