Some time ago, the World War II blockbuster "Decisive Battle of Midway" was released, which made the topic of war movies hot again.
Last time, Pigo introduced Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" and used the whole article to explain the complicated feelings of sitting on a needle when he first saw this 183-minute love triangle movie that year.
Before the article was sent, Pi Ge also expected that netizens would definitely fry the pan, and sure enough, I saw that the article was actively noticed below, and the amount of replies was as high as more than two thousand.
Most of the doubting voices Pi Ge can accept, but some netizens mentioned that we in China have not been able to make a movie of the level of "Pearl Harbor", but Pi Ge does not dare to agree.
Because in Pigo's eyes, we in China have and only one epic war movie that can fully compare with Pearl Harbor, or even surpass its level.
Not only is the investment huge, the costumes and props are exquisite, the scenes are magnificent, and the story is grand, the plot is ups and downs, and the gripping is a rare epic masterpiece even if it is placed all over the world.
What Pig wants to say is that the Taiwanese anti-war film "Sedek Balai", which was moved to tears several times in the process of watching the movie, was written and directed by Wei Desheng, a powerful director after the 60s in Taiwan.
The film invested as much as NT$600 million (US$23 million), which is less than a fraction of Hollywood's top blockbuster, but for Wei, it has already made him anxious.
The filming process once ran out of funds, fortunately, Jay Chou generously donated, borrowed 40 million Taiwan dollars (and it is interest-free, only 1 yuan of symbolic interest), so that the crew can tide over the difficulties, but also so that the film can be successfully completed.
As early as 1997, after Wei Desheng saw Qiu Ruolong's comic "The Incident of the Mist Society", he already had the idea of putting it on the screen.
So it took him three years to complete the version, and it was named "Sedek Bale", and in 2000 he won the "Excellent Film Script Award" from the Taiwan Information Bureau.
"Sedek Bale" comes from the Saidek language, which means " real man " ( the exact meaning is later explained ) . Subsequently, in 2003, he took out NT$2 million out of his own pocket to shoot a 5-minute trailer to attract investment, but it was finally suspended due to insufficient fundraising.
Then he had a new idea, that is, the strategy of "saving the country through the curve", first making a love literary film called "Cape Seven" to make money, and then making "Cedek Barai" when he had money.
Fortunately, the film sold well at the box office, grossing NT$530 million after its release in Taiwan in 2008, and also performed well in the mainland the following year.
Wei Desheng invested all the money he earned with Cape Seven into Sydek Bale.
Not only is the grandeur of the film unique in Taiwanese cinema, but its "super giant" length, which is divided into "Sun Flag" and "Rainbow Bridge", with a total length of 276 minutes (4 hours and 36 minutes), is also rare in the world.
The film tells the story of an unforgettable and tragic memory belonging to the indigenous people of Taiwan, which occurred in 1930 with the "Wushe Incident".
The cause of the incident was the long-standing hatred between the Saidek and the Japanese invaders.
The contradictions between the two sides date back to 1894,
The Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War ended in the defeat of the Qing government, followed by the Signing of the Treaty of Maguan on April 17, 1895, ceding the islands of Taiwan, its affiliated islands, and the Penghu Islands to Japan.
The Qing government in Taiwan originally practiced for a long time the policy of "drawing boundaries and closing mountains" for the indigenous people, that is, drawing boundaries and letting them move in the mountains, fending for themselves, enjoying themselves, and getting along with each other.
After the arrival of the Japanese, in order to obtain the resources of wood and mineral deposits in the mountains, it was necessary to go deep into the world and contact these indigenous people.
The customs of the Saidek people are also extremely barbaric and willful in Pigo's view.
For example, they usually not only have to go hunting with shotguns, but also to "go out of the grass", that is, to engage in armed attacks, kill people from hostile tribes, and cut off their heads as victories.
Only adult males who have successfully "come out of the grass" can get a tattoo totem and become a "real person" (the title "Sedek Bale" means exactly that), which turns out to be an important part of their rite of passage.
They believe that only by obtaining the totem can they walk through the Rainbow Tower to enter the ancestral spirit after death, and they are worshipped by their people, so they regard the dignity of becoming a "human" more important than life and death.
The Japanese regard this custom as a barbaric practice, and naturally it must be prohibited.
They also forbade the Sadeks to possess firearms privately, and some traditional crafts, such as the cultivation of weaving raw materials, were regulated.
After the loss of the traditional way of life, the aborigines had to work as laborers and maids to obtain their living needs, and the destruction of the woods by the logging industry also worsened the living environment of the indigenous people.
In addition, the japanese police stationed in the "fertile land" used their position to bully the aborigines from time to time, which further intensified the contradictions between the two sides.
The trigger of the incident stemmed from a "toast storm".
On October 7, 1930, when Tadao Mozheng, the eldest son of the leader of the Mahpo Society, Mona Rudao, was holding a wedding banquet, the local police station Yoshimura Katsumi and his colleagues passed by, Tadao Mo was toasting to him, but Yoshimura did not appreciate it, which led to a conflict, and Yoshimura was injured.
Afterwards, Mona Rudao personally led the crowd to Yoshimura with wine to apologize, and Yoshimura refused to accept an apology.
Mona Rudo already harbored a grudge and finally decided to start a fight.
October 27, 1930, the day prince of Kita-Shirakawa Miya-Nohisa was killed by the Taiwanese rebels during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan, was designated as the "Taiwan Shrine Festival" Day.
Kirishe's elementary school holds a sports day every year, and all Japanese people in the vicinity come to participate in the rally.
Mona Rudao led the clans of the six societies to attack the police station around the Kirisame, seized the guns, and then gathered at the site of the Kirisame attack.
A total of 134 Japanese were killed, dozens wounded, and more than 130 rifles, more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition and 1 machine gun were captured.
At the end of the Sun Flag, Mona Rudao sent men to sabotage the railway near the Kirisho shrine and set up fortifications to deter the Japanese army.
He himself looked solemn, sitting under the flagpole and gasping for breath.
The Japanese had invited Na Rudo to visit the Japanese warships, so he was well aware of the strength of the Japanese, and this time the facts were a move to break the ship.
The second part, Rainbow Bridge, focuses on the process of the rebels fighting the Japanese army.
The Japanese Governor-General's Office in Taiwan organized a crusade of more than 800 troops from the army, more than 1,100 policemen, and more than 1,300 soldiers to go to the Kirisame and engage in a fierce battle with the rebels on October 31.
Three days later, the various societies fell one after another, the rebels retreated to the mountains to continue to resist, and the Japanese army did not hesitate to cast erosive poison gas on the rebels, causing the rebels to suffer heavy casualties.
Some of them, old and weak, and women hanged themselves in the dense forest so as not to drag their loved ones down.
The rebels persisted for more than a month, and on December 1, Mona Rudo, believing that it was the last moment, committed suicide by walking into the dense forest, and his body was not found many years later. Most of the warriors in his clan also committed suicide.
The most special thing about the film is the objective display of the barbaric customs of the Sidek people, which Wei Desheng has no intention of deliberately sublimating, but shows the collision and conflict of the two social forms of barbarism and civilization in front of the audience.
Many people find it difficult to accept the picture of those women and children hanging themselves, because according to the traditional cognition of the Chinese people, the meaning of resistance lies in defending the family country, and women and children are the main body of the family, if even the family cannot be protected, what is the meaning of resistance?
However, the Sideks regard dignity as more important than life, and they do not hesitate to sacrifice the lives of the entire clan just to fight for a breath.
The film uses a lot of ink to show the living conditions of the Sidek people, and also uses extremely bloody shots to show their ferocity, which is an objective way of expression that Wei Desheng persistently pursues.
Therefore, the film is divided into upper and lower parts, with a total length of more than 4 and a half hours, and four surprises when it is released.
Unfortunately, this seriousness has become unsatisfactory to our mainland, a large number of pages have been deleted, the bloody scenes have all been removed, and the two films have become one, with only 153 minutes left.
Therefore, although it was released in our mainland, fans like Pigo did not enter the cinema and finally only collected 14.75 million yuan at the box office, which is a pity.
But the quality of "Sedek Bale" is beyond doubt, although it is divided into 3 entries on Douban, the score of netizens is close to 9 points, which shows that most people recognize this movie.
It also grossed NT$900 million in Taiwan, setting a new record for the local film box office, and hong Kong's HK$2.89 million box office, which is enough to recoup the cost.
Although it is a war film shot in Taiwan, "Sedek Balai" is enough to be recorded in history as the only war epic film in China.
Text/Pippi Film Editorial Department: Bloody Dan Heart
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