While the shortened festival version of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (彩虹戰士:賽德克巴萊) did not win an award at the Venice Film Festival, which closed on Saturday, the first installment of the two-part epic has broken local box office records.
Director Wei Te-sheng (魏德聖) has said that in cutting the film to two-and-a-half-hours, which was needed to fit Venice’s submission format, a large part of the emotional buildup was sacrificed and many of the scenes that reveal the characters’ emotions were cut. He also said he had not expected to win in Venice.
Being nominated was itself a recognition, Wei said yesterday through the film’s production company. He said he was happy enough that the Taiwanese film could be exposed to the international community and the history on which the film was based could be known by more people.
Wei added that he cares more about the reaction from his fellow Taiwanese.
The first installment of the epic took in NT$23 million (US$791,200) when it debuted at 68 theaters nationwide on Friday, the highest opening-day record for any Taiwanese film. The total box office gross could surpass NT$130 million in its first four days after the release of its first part, co-producer Huang Chi-ming (黃志明) said.
A special screening in Greater Kaohsiung will show the entire four-and-a-half-hour version today during the Mid-Autumn Festival. The 10,000 tickets were sold out shortly after going on sale, despite prices ranging from NT$800 to NT$1,200
The NT$700 million (US$24 million) film was referred to as Taiwan’s national pride after being nominated for the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival. It was also selected as Taiwan’s choice for an Academy Award nomination.
Meanwhile, reaction in China to the film’s showing in Venice have been far more muted and critical. Reports of the film’s Sept. 1 world premiere in Venice from the Chinese press were a stark contrast to those in Taiwan.
Headlines in Chinese online media included “‘Seediq Bale’: Showy Pseudo-epic” and “Seediq Bale: Great Disappointment.”
The Youth Daily described only a spatter of applause after the screening and that the international media appeared uninterested in the competition title.
“One of the widely-expected Chinese-language competition titles, Seediq Bale, drew cheerless reaction from the foreign media. Domestic press has endless negative comments on it,” the report said.
Chinese film critic Zhu Xubin called the film a “pseudo-epic that was big, but empty and superficial.”
The opinion echoed some international reviews of the shortened edition that showed in Venice to fit the festival’s format.
“The result is a watchable, visually detailed, but involving action drama that never spends enough time with the characters to engender any emotional empathy,” the Web site Film Business Asia said.
Wei, who has said he did not set out to make a commercial film, has brushed off the criticism.
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