Japanese Imperialism through a Taiwanese Lens: Wei Te-sheng's Cinematic Portrayals of the Colonial Era

Abstract

Wei Te-sheng’s film Cape No. 7 (2008) depicts a Taiwanese postman’s efforts to deliver long-lost love letters written sixty years earlier by a colonial Japanese teacher to the Taiwanese girl he courted. The film’s sweetly nostalgic framing of colonial relations contrasts starkly with Wei’s 2011 film Seediq Bale, which violently portrays the 1930 Wushe Uprising that left over 130 Japanese colonists and 600 indigenous Seediq people dead. This paper analyzes differences between Wei’s two representations of the colonial period, examines cultural contexts for such distinct renderings of Japan-Taiwan relations, and explores their significance for contemporary Taiwanese identity.