The Ministry of National Defense (MND) has agreed to help an award-wining Taiwanese director by allowing several Aboriginal servicemen to take time away from their military duties to work as actors in his new film, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.
Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), director of Taiwan’s biggest-grossing locally produced film, Cape No. 7, needs several Aborigines to be key actors or extras on his next project titled Seediq Bale, which is an epic account of an uprising by indigenous Sediq tribesmen against Japanese colonialists during Japan’s occupation of Taiwan from 1895 to 1945.
“The film will require a lot of Aboriginal extras, not to mention about 20 or 30 Aborigines who will actually play more than a cameo part in the film,” said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓).
However, the people who meet the roles’ requirements are almost all doing their military service, so the casting of the film is “not running smoothly,” Chou said.
Chou asked the defense ministry to support the casting of the film, and has received a promise from Minister of National Defense Chen Chao-min (陳肇敏) that the servicemen can take time off.
Wei said Seediq Bale will cost more than US$10 million to produce, with release projected for in the middle of next year.
The uprising of the Sediq tribesmen, called the Wushe Incident, took place in 1930 when Japanese soldiers massacred members of the Sediq tribe.
Considered the most famous and most violent of all the anti-Japanese uprisings in Taiwan, the incident occurred in the Aboriginal region of Wushe in present-day Nantou County.
After a Japanese police officer insulted a tribesman, hundreds of Sediq tribesmen, under the leadership of tribal chief Mona Rudao, massacred Japanese residents in the area. During the violence, Japanese residents were killed.
The Japanese colonial government then sent in troops and during the military crackdown, most of the tribal insurgents were either killed or committed suicide, along with their family members or fellow tribesmen. Several hundred tribesmen were killed.
The Sediq are Aboriginal tribe living primarily in Nantou County and Hualien County. They were officially recognized as Taiwan’s 14th indigenous group in April last year.
‘NON-RED’: Taiwan and Ireland should work together to foster a values-driven, democratic economic system, leveraging their complementary industries, Lai said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday expressed hopes for closer ties between Taiwan and Ireland, and that both countries could collaborate to create a values-driven, democracy-centered economic system. He made the remarks while meeting with an Irish cross-party parliamentary delegation visiting Taiwan. The delegation, led by John McGuinness, deputy speaker of the Irish house of representatives, known as the Dail, includes Irish lawmakers Malcolm Byrne, Barry Ward, Ken O’Flynn and Teresa Costello. McGuinness, who chairs the Ireland-Taiwan Parliamentary Friendship Association, is a friend of Taiwan, and under his leadership, the association’s influence has grown over the past few years, Lai said. Ireland is
A saleswoman, surnamed Chen (陳), earlier this month was handed an 18-month prison term for embezzling more than 2,000 pairs of shoes while working at a department store in Tainan. The Tainan District Court convicted Chen of embezzlement in a ruling on July 7, sentencing her to prison for illegally profiting NT$7.32 million (US$248,929) at the expense of her employer. Chen was also given the opportunity to reach a financial settlement, but she declined. Chen was responsible for the sales counter of Nike shoes at Tainan’s Shinkong Mitsukoshi Zhongshan branch, where she had been employed since October 2019. She had previously worked
FINAL COUNTDOWN: About 50,000 attended a pro-recall rally yesterday, while the KMT and the TPP plan to rally against the recall votes today Democracy activists, together with arts and education representatives, yesterday organized a motorcade, while thousands gathered on Ketagalan Boulevard in Taipei in the evening in support of tomorrow’s recall votes. Recall votes for 24 Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers and suspended Hsinchu City mayor Ann Kao (高虹安) are to be held tomorrow, while recall votes for seven other KMT lawmakers are scheduled for Aug. 23. The afternoon motorcade was led by the Spring Breeze Culture and Arts Foundation, the Tyzen Hsiao Foundation and the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association, and was joined by delegates from the Taiwan Statebuilding Party and the Taiwan Solidarity
TRANSPORT DISRUPTION: More than 100 ferry services were suspended due to rough seas and strong winds, and eight domestic flights were canceled, the ministry said Tropical Storm Wipha intensified slightly yesterday as it passed closest to Taiwan, dumping more than 200mm of rain in Hualien and Taitung counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 11am, Wipha was about 210km southwest of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and was moving west-northwest at 27km per hour (kph). The storm carried maximum sustained winds of 101kph and gusts reaching 126kph, with a 150km radius of strong winds, CWA data showed. Wipha’s outer rainbands began sweeping across Taiwan early yesterday, delivering steady rainfall in the east and scattered showers in other regions, forecasters said. More heavy rain was expected, especially in the eastern
RSS