Taiwanese Culture in Madison: Taiwanese Cinema & Opening Reception

One episode in Taiwan’s forgotten, even deliberately buried, past has been recovered in the documentary Wansei Back Home. Wansei refers to Japanese who were born in Taiwan during the colonial period (1895 - 1945). After WWII, wansei were repatriated to Japan; since then, painful separation stories have occurred throughout Taiwan and Japan.

 

This documentary took 12 years of field interviews and five years of filming production, it was a passion project of Taiwan-based producer Mika Tanaka and director Ming-Cheng Huang. The documentary film and book, Wansei Back Home, which tells the remarkable life story of civilians, was born because of Mika’s hard work and dedication to the cause. Wansei Back Home features interviews with eight wansei; the film incorporates historical footage, old family photos, and animation, to tell their story of enforced separation from childhood friends and relatives in the Japanese settlements in Taiwan, and the peculiar sensation of being estranged from their own hometowns.

 

 

Panay (aka Wawa No Cidal) is a 2015 feature film directed by Taiwanese director Cheng Yu-Chieh and Lekal Sumi Cilangasan. Panay is a very common female name among the Taiwanese Indigenous tribe, it simply stands the beautiful spike of rice.

 

This is one of the few Taiwanese movies that filmed from an indigenous perspective and it is inspired by a true story. Through the cross ethnic cooperation between two directors, Cheng Yu-Chieh (Han) and Lekal Sumi (Pangcah), actors of Panay are mostly new to the stage; they are fresh yet persuasive. The movie has been awarded the Audience Choice Award from the Taipei Film Festival and winner of the 8th International Children's Film Festival Award. Panay's theme song “Aka pisawad” won the Best Original Film Song of the 52th Golden Horse Awards.