Truth and consequences

Settling into his seat in a To Kwa Wan hotel cafe, director Wei Te-sheng pauses before answering how he feels about the reception of his Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale diptych at home in Taiwan.

The two films are based on the Wushe Incident of 1930 when one of the island's indigenous tribes led an ill-fated rebellion against their Japanese colonial masters. The occupiers responded with a devastating campaign that nearly wiped the mutinous communities off the map. Since their release in September, the films have accumulated NT$750 million (HK$191 million) at the box office.

Having travelled the film festival circuit extensively for the past three months - its premiere at Venice was followed by screenings in Toronto and Busan - the film has also been nominated for 11 awards at the Golden Horses this year.

'We expected much more, of course,' says the 42-year-old Wei about the fact that neither instalment could eclipse the NT$530 million earnings of his 2008 breakthrough, the more modestly budgeted romance drama Cape No 7. 'But we thought about it afterwards and decided we'd already achieved something that's not exactly easy - that is, to have the local audiences accept what we are showing them in Seediq Bale. After all, this is not something along the lines of Cape No7 or [Giddens Ko's recently released teenage rom-com] You Are the Apple of My Eye.'

With their unflinching portrayal of the Seediq tribe's headhunting rituals, plus the predominance of the Seediq language and Japanese in the dialogue, the films are hardly easy fare for the ordinary filmgoer. Still, audiences have descended on cinemas in droves. And, to Wei's delight, they have sparked discussions about a historical episode which has long been relegated to 'just a few lines in our textbooks', says the director.

'There's a lot of reflection about what actually happened then, and why. We've largely forgotten where we came from, and how our ancestors saw things. And at a time when the indigenous communities have slowly regained their own traditions and beliefs, audiences are now asking themselves where their cultural traditions lie. 'What about our history? Where do we go from here?' It's an important exercise, in terms of how we contemplate our own history.'