“If it were not for the charisma and the will of [Seediq Bale director] Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖), Taiwan could not have completed a film on Seediq Bale’s level,” recording artist Tu Duu-chih (杜篤之) said after working with Wei, adding that taking part in a film of such epic proportions meant he had to “give it all that I’ve got.”
Based on the 1930 Wushe Incident, Seediq Bale tells the story of an uprising led by Mona Rudao, an Aboriginal of the Sediq tribe, against the Japanese colonial government.
Before the film was made, Tu said Wei, the director of the 2008 blockbuster Cape No. 7, had spent NT$2 million (US$68,900) on a five-minute film telling the public of his dream of shooting the epic movie.
“Who would spend NT$2 million before the film actually got under way?” Tu asked, saying “it was this almost fanatical determination that moved everyone around him.”
Without the success of Cape No. 7 in 2008, the production of Seediq Bale would still be a long way off, Tu said, adding that despite the earlier film’s success, Seediq Bale was still a difficult project to undertake.
First, in August 2009 Typhoon Morakot destroyed the original set, causing the film’s estimated budget to skyrocket to NT$600 million from the original NT$200 million, Tu said.
However, Wei continued shooting the film while searching for people to bankroll the film, even though he was constantly ridiculed along the way, Tu said.
Wei’s charisma is a result of his passion and determination, Tu said, adding that 10 months before shooting the film, the sound editing team still hadn’t received any money.
It was well known that Wei was under severe financial pressure and was millions of NT dollars in debt, but people continued to have faith in him, believing that he would not skip out on the bill and that he would pay their wages when he had the money, Tu said.
Without that kind of determination and will, Taiwan wouldn’t have been able to film Seediq Bale, Tu said.
Tu said it has been many years since Taiwan has made a war movie, and sound recording techniques have come a long way since then. Every sound in Seediq Bale portrays a strength and quality of sound recording never seen in a Taiwanese movie before, Tu said, adding that this would be a first for Taiwanese cinema.
“The most important thing is that all of Taiwan is focused on this film, and that the work that went into the details was no less than in a Hollywood-level film; and most importantly, it must not disgrace Taiwan,” Tu said.
“How many people in Taiwan can actually understand the Seediq language?” Tu asked, but said that “Wei stressed that the details should make the audience feel as if they were in the movie,” so he insisted that the actors learn how to speak Seediq while filming the movie.
In the latter part of film production, Wei often made actors do more than one take to get the Seediq-language dialogue scenes perfect, Tu said.
“I feel honored,” Tu said when asked how he felt about working with Wei for two years to produce the film.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai