Director finishes epic after 13 years

Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) said in a wrap-up press conference yesterday that true Taiwanese spirit is highlighted in the movie. It shows what it means “to be a proud person, “as indicated in the title “Seediq Bale,” which means “real man” in the indigenous Seediq language.

Wei is best known for his 2008 blockbuster Cape No. 7 that earned the second biggest box office amount in Taiwan history after Titanic.

His latest film, Seediq Bale, is considered a milestone of Taiwan's film industry in terms of investment and historical awareness.

The film is an ambitious NT$600 million (US$20 million) dramatization of the Wushe Incident, in which an indigenous hero rebelled against Japanese military forces during the colonial period in Taiwan in the 1930s.

“You can't imagine the scale of work involved in this movie,” said Wei. “We reached places where one could hardly stand and every alarm meant someone injured had to be sent to hospital.”

The movie features 15,000 characters, mainly indigenous walk-ons, and a 400-member production crew from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

“I am proud of the team and I appreciate their participation,” he said.

Wei said earlier he was first inspired to make a movie about the Wushe Incident after he watched the handover of Hong Kong from Britain to China in 1997. He said both events reflected identity with the land.

Wei finished the script of Seediq Bale in 2000 during the making of Double Vision, on which he worked as associate producer.

In 2003, he raised NT$2 million to shoot a five-minute trailer of Seediq Bale in order to seek financial support. Although his efforts to raise money for the film did not succeed at the time, Wei did not give up his dream.

He turned to make Cape No. 7, which generated enough money to revive the Seediq Bale project last year, he said.

However, the film went over its budget mainly because of a series of setbacks and accidents on location. For example, he said when Typhoon Morakot hit Taiwan last year, it damaged some of the sets, and in one location, a member of the crew was seriously injured in an attack by a boar.

“From time to time, we thought we were not going to make it,” said Wei. “But somehow when we were at the end of our tether, we carried on together and finished the movie hand in hand.”

The four-hour film will be shown in two parts when it hits the big screen next July.

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