Cape No.7 (海角七号) is a love-music film, and a really good one.
Watching this love film with certain political perspective, in my opinion, is hurting one's very soul for peace and love.
There are lines and a few scenes, just like in every other film, that is open to different interpretation. Yet, taking a radical interpretation to suggest this love film has a certain political innuendo is taking it too far.
The very first line "fuck you Taipei" by the main actor who left Taipei for his hometown after a disappointing career is seen by some quarters as poking the eye of the KMT.
The few scenes wherein an elderly supporting cast is singing and speaking Japanese is taken as glorifying Japanization is an outright failure to understand the historical setting in which that particular generation is subject to.
The last scene of a Taiwanese girl waiting at the dock hoping in vain for her timid and subsequently remorseful Japanese teacher cum lover to take her along with the ship departing for Japan following the surrender is interpreted as embracing Japanese Imperialism is also too arbitrary without most natural human sentiment for love.
Alas, all these misgiving and misunderstanding are stretched and twisted out of proportion. It is particularly sad that it has been politicized and it is also really unnecessary for many compatriots to make hurtful comment unhelpful to cross-strait relationship and that between Chinese and Japanese. This relationship I spoke about is not that between a polity and a polity. It is one that exist at the most basic level between peoples.
It is reported that the film is banned in the mainland because of its positive portray of Japanization in Taiwan. I hope this is not true.
Speaking for myself, I have been and will continue to be, highly critical against the right wing Japanese and also the Japanese royal house for failing to apologize unconditionally for the World War II aggression.
However, nothing in the film I find any attempt at glorifying the Imperial Japan. It is a plain portray of two love stories connected via the seven undelivered letters written on board by the then remorseful lover.
The separation between the Japanese teacher and his young Taiwanese lover in the film, is no different from, any lovers separated by the force of war and conflict. Their longing to be together and their love for each other is as human and natural as anyone of us would have desired.
It is terribly sad that many of critics have been possessed by an increasingly violence-prone nationalism to ruthlessly dismiss the bond of love between that of a man and a woman.
No way, shall we forget the history of pain and no way shall we deny the future of love and peace.
The past lesson of war and conflict make it even more imperative that love and friendship across the strait and across the East Sea shall ever be denied to us and the future generation.
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The plot is centered at the seven undelivered love letters written 60 years ago to the title of the film, Cape No. 7, which is an old address during the Japanese rule in a very scenic seaside town, Hengchun, in the southern tip of Taiwan.
According to Wei Te-sheng, the film director, the choice of Hengchun is to amplify the various contrast in the story and the characters to deliver a message of inclusiveness of love for lovers, family and friends. This, I think, the film had succeeded.
The script delivered in Mandarin, Japanese and Min Nan (Taiwanese), particularly the latter maybe difficult for non-Min Nan speakers to understand the film well. This is a reason I believe why I like this film. Each time the Min Nan is spoken, I find resonance to my root, never mind it is slightly different Min Nan from what I speak.
My guess is that the film can strike a chord with very few overseas Chinese. There are simply not too many who speak Min Nan these day or have had an understanding of Taiwan.
No wonder, the film was recording breaking in Taiwan and yet it didn't have a strong showing in Hong Kong.
What is amazing in retrospect is that the casting is actually rather weak. The leading actor, Van Fan (an aborigine himself, this again show the inclusiness of this film) is actually a singer and had no silver screen experience prior to the shooting.
The actress is a Japanese who speak decent Mandarin who had little success in her earlier debut. Other supporting casts are mainly unknown. The film director himself had limited experience in a full-length motion and had to spend his own money to finish the production.
To live up as a successful blockbuster, Cape No 7 succeeded in connecting with everyone's longing for love, an universal value. Adding icing to the cake, the music, from sentimental to rock songs, sung mostly in Mandarin and few in Japanese, against a combination of modern and traditional musical instrument is so good to the extent that I keep replaying them from the Youtube.
2 comments:
I, too, heard of various reports to ban the movie in the Mainland although I have not seen it myself. But thanks to you, now I have a better understanding of the plot and sub-texts which aroused those controversies.
To put it plainly, even though on the whole I have a lot of sympaties with modern China on most issues, the tendency (of whom, I wonder: the government ? certain individuals? the political establishment?) to darkly over-react to such politically tinged issues is pretty tragic if not ironic.
These emotional outbursts are a somewhat artificial emotional exercise. Once it started, the character cannot stop because "people will think we are weak." Although, at its root, one finds perceived-weakness or even self-pity.
In a society like China where historically and culturally people often do not hold absolute views on many things much less airing them in public; I tend to view such vehement, hysterical, self-righteously uncompromising emotions to be mostly theatre and the speakers often sounded as if they are trying to convince themselves.
Acting out such emotions perpetuates a feeling of fear, haplessness and weakness among the people masked by false bravado. Is this really what makes China strong? Nonetheless, the tragedies unleashed by the destructive force of such manipulation and mass demagoguery are real. The Cultural Revolution being the most recent - and one hopes for the future progress of China, the very last - example.
It is undeniable that there are much about the Japanese occupation of China and Taiwan that is inexcusably abhorrent and uncondonable! Japan's official lack of honesty and candour in confronting its past actions makes it hard for either side to make genuine efforts to put the past behind and concentrate on peaceful future coexistence.
But herelies the irony. Is China any more honest and remorseful (or in the various play on words "regret", or "apology") about self-inflicted crimes on its people? Are Chinese school text books honest about the Cultural Revolution? Mao's crazy schemes? June 4th? the KMT? the Anti-Japanese war? the entire Chinese history? It is easy to blame others but true strength of the people comes from being self-aware and that means being honest about the past (and present); if we truly know who we are why would history make us any better or any worse as a people?
But playing grievance politics is a lose-lose strategy which can only lead to renewed conflicts where there can be no winners in peace - even more so in war.
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