Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale

I had the great privilege to see the film Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale last night. This was an incredible film that depicted the Wushe Incident, which occurred in Taiwan while it was under Japanese rule in the 1930s. The film follows Mona Rudao, chief of the Mahebu clan and his warriors in a fight against the Japanese. This film completely opened up my eyes to the way the Seediq people were treated by the Japanese. They were forced to learn Japanese and study Japanese history and were beaten by the Japanese officers. Though Seediq could also become Japanese officers, they were never treated as equal. I never realized that the Rebellion the Seediq people started against the Japanese had been such a violent one. The film shows a lot of violence against the Japanese and against the Seediq people. You see almost every single character die. Most of the Seediq deaths are suicides, including every female death. This leads me to believe that committing suicide is a much more honourable death than being killed by the Japanese. This just goes to show how important the Seediq customs, traditions and culture is. Even under Japanese rule, they would still practice their rituals. This was such an incredible film and definitely worth a watch. It was incredibly well made and the actors were incredible. They really gave a sense of what these people went through during the rebellion. I highly recommend this film to anyone who is interested in Taiwanese history, however if you are unable to handle blood and violence, I would stay away from this film.