Cape No. 7

 

Getting up close and personal with a whip scorpion in Dakeng (Tak'eng)

The Taiwanese movie "Cape No. 7" has been a runaway success in this country, and the Japan Times ジャパンタイムズ has taken note of the phenomenon ("Taiwan love story conjures colonial nostalgia"):

"A Taiwanese movie depicting a love story between a Japanese woman and a Taiwanese man has become a huge blockbuster on the island, setting box-office records since its release at the end of August. 'Cape No. 7,' which cost just 50 million Taiwanese dollars (￥155 million/$1.5 million) to make, but has so far generated NT400 million, or about ¥1.2 billion ($12.2 million). The actors and actresses featured in the movie have all become stars in Taiwan, and spin off goods are selling well."

Many of my students have seen the film (though in true Taiwanese fashion, some of them didn't pay for the privilege, if you get my meaning), and the overall consensus is positive. The JT summarizes the plot of "Cape No. 7":

"The story centers on seven love letters written by a male Japanese teacher who left Taiwan after World War II and the end of Japan's colonial rule of Taiwan. The letters were written to a Taiwanese woman living in a town on the coast of southern Taiwan. Sixty years later, a group of Taiwanese boys and a Japanese girl discover the letters and try to deliver them to the woman addressed in the letters."

One interesting thing about "Cape No. 7" is that the dialog isn't in Mandarin 中国官話 as might be expected. Instead, Japanese and Taiwanese 台湾語 are the dominant languages in the movie. As the Japan Times explains:

"Chinese Mandarin was introduced to Taiwan by Chinese mainlanders who emigrated to the island together with the Kuomintang 中国国民党 government in the late 1940s. Critics lay the movie's popularity to nostalgia for the period of Japanese colonial rule and frustration over the Nationalist Party government..."

Hmm...a touching love story with a subtle anti-Chinese nationalism undercurrent (though the director denies any political motivations)? "Cape No. 7" might be worth seeing. 

UPDATE: Michael Turton passed along this interpretation of the movie from his friend Michael:

"It's Taiwanese love for Japanese pop culture cleverly packaged by the director to get people to think about the colonial period, a period which is a complete blank for young people."