Warriors of the Rainbow

Director Wei Te-sheng originally intended for Warriors of the Rainbow (Seediq Bale) to be his feature film debut, but Wei was unable to secure funding until his feel-good drama Cape No. 7 (FEFF 11) became the highest-grossing local film in Taiwan Cinema history. Cape No. 7’s critical and commercial success paved the way for Seediq Bale, but the challenges in making the film are easy to see. An expensive, epic story about the near-extinction of a people, performed mostly in a largely-unspoken language, and featuring the mass killing of women and children by the heroes — Seediq Bale would be a tough nut for any filmmaker to crack. But Wei Te-sheng was up to the challenge.
About the indigenous Seediq people, who lived in Taiwan long before the Chinese migrated to the island, Seediq Bale begins near the start of the twentieth century with the youth of rising chieftain Mouna Rudo (Da Ching), whose exploits in combat and hunting earn him the appellation of “Seediq Bale” or “Real Man.” However, with Taiwan ceded to Japan as a result of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki, the Seediq people become subject to Japanese colonial rule, and are forced to give up many customs, including the hunting of animals and also humans, whose skulls they keep as trophies. The Seediq are also forbidden to apply traditional tattoos that secure their passage to the afterlife over a “rainbow bridge.” Now menial laborers or second-class citizens converted to Japanese culture, the Seediq are a marginalized people.
Tensions between the Japanese and the Seediq reach a head in 1930, when the elder Mouna Rudo (Lin Ching-tai) leads various Seediq tribes in a revolt on the colonial Japanese. Taking place on October 27, 1930, the Wushe Incident involved the death of over 130 Japanese at an elementary school sports day, with many of the assembled Japanese beheaded in traditional Seediq manner. Onscreen, the violence and gore is visceral and even exciting, but Wei Te-sheng makes sure not to glamorize or exploit the bloodletting (no women or children are shown as beheaded). Perhaps more disturbing is a harrowing sequence where the Seediq women opt for mass suicide rather than burden the Seediq men during wartime. Despite the film being thematically nationalist, Wei skillfully presents these different cultures and peoples on their own terms, with little if any judgement based on modern political or ethical views.
Seediq Bale was conceived as two films for the Taiwan market: the first film ends at the Wushe Incident while the second film details the continuing struggle, as the Japanese mobilize to contain the rebellion and the Seediq engage in guerilla warfare in Taiwan’s lush mountain forests. The version presented at FEFF is an international cut combining both films into a single 155-minute work. There’s an obvious loss; the story contains multiple characters with involved personal stories, and the international version glosses over or removes certain details and subplots. However, the work’s power remains. As a dramatization of history, Seediq Bale is incredibly strong. The action sequences are both riveting and intricate, and the plight of the Seediq — a proud people who would rather die honorably than see their culture quietly fade — comes off as both powerful and tragic.
Wei Te-sheng manages a fine balancing act with Seediq Bale: he pays tribute to his people and his homeland, while not demonizing or accusing another culture in the process. This is not a story of victory or outrage, but instead one of spirit or integrity. The film depicts both sides of its historical conflict but stops short of criticizing anyone beyond select individuals. Characters among both the Seediq and the Japanese choose sides based on personal or societal motivations, and cultural difference is portrayed merely as fact rather than fault. Seediq Bale shows that Wei Te-sheng is an international filmmaker, whose nationalist concerns are sharply balanced with international-level storytelling and craft. For Wei Te-sheng, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is an obvious labor of love, but for audiences it’s a triumph of perseverance, a years-in-the-making filmmaking achievement, and an undeniable milestone for Taiwan cinema.