After more than a year of preparation and with the participation of more than 400 people from two remote Atayal villages, the filming of a movie dedicated to the Atayal tribe will begin next week.
A Thousand Years of Atayal (泰雅千年) started out as a request from the Shei-pa National Park (雪霸國家公園) to shoot a documentary recording the life and culture of the Atayal who live in the national park, Lu Szu-yueh (盧思岳), producer of the movie, said at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
"But we decided that, instead of making a straight documentary, we'd add a storyline to make it more interesting," Lu said.
Chen Wen-pin (
The story revolves around the life of a young Atayal man called Yukan, who works in a big city and has recurring dreams of an ancient Atayal village.
Yukan later discovers that the village is actually the home of his ancestors and decides to return to it in search of his identity.
Determined to inject more local color into the movie and create a movie that reflects the life of the Atayal people from an Aboriginal perspective, Lu asked for the Atayal community's assistance and involvement in the project.
"The Aborigines didn't just act, they also participated in the production," Lu said.
All decisions made about the movie had to be approved by an 11-member committee made up of residents in two nearby Atayal villages, Lu said.
Meanwhile, a traditional Atayal village used in the filming of the ancient village was constructed based on ancient knowledge and using local materials.
"The village elders led the younger residents in building the houses based on traditional Atayal methods," Lu said, adding that more than 400 Aborigines were involved in the construction.
All the actors in the movie were also recruited and trained locally, Lu said.
"I hope [the making of the film] can help us preserve our culture and rediscover those traditions that have long been lost," said Yumin, an Atayal man who participated in the making of the movie.
Unlike past films on the same subject, "99 percent of the dialogue in the movie will be in Atayal," Chen said.
The movie is expected to be released at the end of the year, Chen said.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
Through analyzing fossil evidence, a research team at National Taiwan University (NTU) discovered the largest endemic bird to have lived in Taiwan, naming it Pavo miejue, or extinct peafowl (滅絕孔雀). The Mikado pheasant, which is printed on the back of the NT$1,000 bank note, was previously believed to be the biggest endemic bird to Taiwan. The research team’s findings suggest that Pavo miejue lived during the Pleistocene epoch tens of thousands of years ago. It is the first endemic extinct bird species discovered and formally named in Taiwan. The study was coauthored by NTU Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修),
Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to suspend its automated Skytrain service connecting Terminal 1 and Terminal 2 starting on July 1 to facilitate connection works for the upcoming Terminal 3, the airport operator said today. Passengers and staff who need to travel between the two terminals after the suspension can instead use the Taoyuan MRT or the airport's 24-hour shuttle bus service, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. The Taoyuan MRT Airport Line directly links the two terminals, while the shuttle buses are to operate around the clock, the company added. The Skytrain provides free transportation between the airport’s two terminals for travelers and
Taiwan ranked 42nd in terms of peacefulness among 163 countries, down five places from last year, according to this year’s Global Peace Index. With an overall score of 1.751, Taiwan dropped from 37th last year, the report published by the global Institute for Economics and Peace showed. The overall score measures a country’s level of peacefulness using 23 quantitative and qualitative indicators across three domains — ongoing domestic and international conflict, societal safety and security, and militarization. While Taiwan ranked 42nd worldwide, it was listed in ninth place among the 19 Asian-Pacific countries in the report, after New Zealand, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia,
RSS