also, when the forests weren’t all chopped down, Chiayi is where all the logs from Alishan was sent to. Ironically, that’s also why Chiayi’s “Agriculture and Forestry public school” was so well funded. After the forests were destroyed, they started planting tea… not so good for the environment in the long run.
Jiayi was known as the “picturesque city”.
Jiayi then and now (from twmemory.org/?p=4619):
Jiayi after the Americans bombed the crap out of it:
Movie opens up today? Who’s got tickets? Remember the movie is 3 hours long… Wei…Wei…
I’ll have to remember to bring a plastic bag…
Well said, Kungwan. I saw the movie today and three things to note: the cinematography is sumptuous and inviting. 2. the boys who play the team KANO players play their roles perfectly and Umin Boya has directed them well. and 3. Coach Kondo played by Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase, now 47 but who first shot to fame in Jim Jarmuch’s 1989 cult film “Mystery Train” as a 22 year old newbie actor in Hollywood, was the perfect casting choice for this role and he deserves two things: a best actor gong at the Golden Horse awards in the fall and a round of applause for putting up with so many scenes where he had to sit in streams and rivers and walk around in tyhphoons and get all muddy on the field and end up
drunk and passed out one night in a rice paddy field. and lastly: i believe KANO will get a best foreign film award the 2015 Oscars in Hollywood because 1. it’s a powerful piece of film making, although a bit too long for American movie tastes and 2. it’s about baseball and Americans love baseball and the baseball scenes in the movie are really classic studies in 1930s world baseball and 3. Hollywood might remember Nagase from the 1989 movie he made there.
go see it…sit close enough to the screen to read the very well written english subtites as they appear below the Chinese subtitles. THE main language in the movie in Japanese, with snippets of Taiwanese Hoklo and Hakka.
No Chinese is spoke at all in those pre-KMT times.
I guess it was bound to come to this, but this news story which needs translation or summary here is about some clowns in Taipei who held a press conference to denounce the KANO movie for being historically inaccureate etc etc. Can anyone explain what this says below?
newtalk.tw/news/2014/02/27/44810.html
沒看KANO就批評 魏德聖：願意請抗獨生看
點擊圖片可瀏覽相關圖片
抗獨史陣線7位成員在西門町6號出口旁舉行記者會，公開批評《KANO》腐蝕台灣主體性。圖：林雨佑/攝
新頭殼newtalk2014.02.27 林雨佑/台北報導
馬志翔導演、魏德聖監製的電影《KANO》今（27）日上映，抗獨史陣線，批評這部片描述的三民族共榮的「黃金組合」，其實是日本殖民樣板，腐蝕台灣主體性。對此，魏德聖表示，拍攝族群問題是用宏觀角度去理解，從不偏袒某個族群。
由台大中華復興社、中華兒女學會、文大草山辟雍社、學生捍衛國史聯盟組成的「抗獨史陣線」共7位成員，今天來到電影院聚集地西門町召開記者會，公開批評魏德聖，呼籲民眾不要看《KANO》。
[my chinese speaking friends in taipei tell me now:]
the news is about ‘‘cultural identity.’’
A league called “抗獨史陣線” think KANO only show Japanese culture because actors speak Taiwanese only 10 seconds from trailer and leading actor also from Japan.
They say KANO is similar to “Sayon’s Bell”.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sayon%27s_Bell
“Sayon’s Bell” was directed by Japanese.
The movie also want to show “Japan is awesome”.
But in history, not at all.
Japanese in Taiwan isn’t “belle epoque”.
Mr.Wei response “KANO is neutrality and welcome to see KANO”
‘‘Just some taiwanese pro china japan haters balabala with Mr.Wei
And Mr.Wei invite them too see KANO,
And then can sit down and discuss the history together.’’
Seven members of the “Against Independence View of History League” held a press conference at exit 6 of the Seimonchou MRT station today to criticize that the movie Kano erodes Taiwan’s subjectivity.
Kana, a movie by Director Umin Boya (Ma Zhi-Xiang) and producer Wei De-sheng premiers today (the 27th). The “Against Independence View of History League” criticizes the movie’s depiction of 3 ethnic groups thriving together as a “golden mix” is a relic propaganda from colonial Japan and erodes the subjectivity of Taiwan. Producer Wei stated they tackle ethnic issues with a higher vantage point in their films, and don’t favor any sides.
The “Against Independence Group” is formed by 7 students from the NTU Greater China Revival Club, Children of China Association, PCCU’s Grass Mountain Piyun club, and Student Protect National History league. They held the press conference at the movie theater hub that is Seimonchou to publicly condemn Wei and urge the public not to watch Kano.
thanks for translation above: re
Students of the "Against Independence Group" criticizes the movie before watching it. Producer Wei is willing to treat them to watching the movie.....friend in kaohsioung emals me today:
‘‘yo, i saw the movie …, a powerful moving touching saga of life in the 1920s and 1930s in Taiwan during the Japanese Colonial Era. The acting by Mr Nagase is a tour de force and he deserves an award for best actor at the Golden Horse awards in the fall. His acting in the movie is the best acting to be seen in a Taiwanese movie in a long long time, and kudos to the producers for inviting him to join the cast and to director Umin Boya for directing him so well. The boys on the KANO team play their roles to perfection, and the side roles of romance and childbirth and a game of Japanese go in the coach’s tatami mat home in Chiayi…all wonderful touches. And the scenery, maybe the scenery is the real star here, the cinematography also deserves a gong at the Golden Horse ceremony. At three hours, it’s long yes, maybe too long, 90 minutes would have been perfect but time seemed to fly by when i was in the movie theater with English subtitles well written and fluent. A very professional and profound movie, I also think it has a chance of getting an Oscar in Holllywood for best foreign film in 2015 awards season. See it. Powerful cinema about a very simple story.’’
Spoke with a Japanese man, aged 50, from Tokyo, believe it or not, he flew to Taipei this week expressly to see the KANO movie and he said he loved it. He told me he is a big fan of baseball history, so he knows the KANO story from way back in his college years in Japan and that most people over 50 in Japan still know and remember the KANO story. So he flew to Taipei, and saw the movie and tomorrow he said he taking train down to Jiayi to look at some of the movie locations for the movie that was shot there, and visit a new KANO museum near the train station with signs and books in Japanese too he said. HE ALSO said that he has heard rumors in Japan media that there are some problems with showing KANO in Japan! why i asked? he said that the leftwing media like asahi shimbun (newspaper) and leftwing political groups do not want Japan to be friendly with Taiwan and therefore they are lobbying for movie theaterse in tokyo and osaka NOT TO BOOK the movie for release or screening in japan except for film festivals…and also that if the movie is shown there it wont be until at least november this fall, and when i asked him he said same problem, the leftwing media and grups are trying to block the movie and give it neg publicity. weird. why would japan do that to a movie that praises and romanticizes japan and is in 90 precent japanese dialog and stars 4 big japanese actors, one who worked with tom cruise in last samurai movie? japan is weird country. i am glad they don’t rule taiwan anymore. or do they?
China has stooges to do its bidding? Color me surprised. 
The movie is good, the story tight. As said, the cinematography -I have such respect for directors, camera people and, ehem, CGI folks here- is beautiful. It makes the environment another character.
Taiwan always looks so pretty in the movies. 
Sadly people are so busy making it not so in the real life…
Saw the movie today. Despite what the stooges of China say about how it corrupts Taiwan’s subjectivity, (what does that even mean?), I think it’s just a baseball movie, that’s all. The movie has nothing to do with sugar coating Japanese colonialism. It is about baseball, people who love the game of baseball, and how sports can transform a person, a group, a city and even a nation. As a baseball movie, it’s a great one. It’s not the best movie of the year or anything, but it’s one of the most exciting baseball movies I’ve seen, and as a rabid baseball fan I’ve seen a lot of baseball movies.
I don’t think there’s too much spoiler below, as I mostly talk about the film making aspect of the movie, so I’ll do away with the spoiler tags.
The main reason why I don’t think it’s one of the best movie this year has to do with the movie’s laggy tempo early on. In most sports movies, there’s a “building the team by finding all the right pieces” sequence. It’s not restricted to sports movies, think Oceans 11, when George Clooney and Brad Pitt are picking and recruiting the team. It is usually done with a snappy tempo, being humorous while showing the audience what these people can do, and why they belong on the team. I recognize Kano tried to have such a sequence, but the tempo is a bit choppy, and also doesn’t clearly show the audience that Coach Konto went to each of them and asked if they want to join. At the end of the sequence, Coach Konto is at Soo Tsìng-sing’s house waiting for Grandma Soo to ask for the gods permission. That is meant to show Coach Konto asked all the non-baseball students to join the team after seeing what they can do. But it just wasn’t executed well…
Soo Tsìng-sing, real life and in the movie
Another thing most sports movies must have is some douche bag trying to dissolve, unfund the team, like the owner of that Charlie Sheen Wild Thing movie trying to sell the team, or the parents in the original Bad News Bears wanting their kids to quit. I think Kano also tried to do it with the Konto asking for funds part. However it is never shown to us what the consequence would be if they don’t get the money, so like the recruitment sequence, it wasn’t very effective.
However, things got a lot better after that. The Koshien portion of the story was what made this movie one of the best baseball movies ever. The character stories and acting are top notch. The atmosphere and the scenery of the stadium is breath taking. More importantly, the level of baseball skills displayed on the screen is REAL. I mean this is not Tim Robbins as Nuke Laloosh in that Druham movie, or Thomas Ian Nicholas in that Rookie Rocket movie. There are no quick edits to hide the awkwardness of the actors, and there are no gimmicks. I seriously felt like I was watching a baseball game. I got pretty nervous and feel the pain of the players, clenching my fists when things gets tough even though I knew the story pretty well.
Before you non-baseball lovers mock that feeling like a real baseball game must mean the tempo was slow and sleep inducing, the tempo was just right. It was fast and snappy when the plays are going on, and just slow enough when it comes to developing the characters. I don’t think I had as intense of an experience watching other baseball movies. Rest assured, the “hide the ball to tag runner out at first” trick that seems mandatory in so many baseball movies isn’t in this one, thank baseball god…
There’s a theme of not giving up, setting a high goal for oneself, don’t expect to win, just give your darnedest not to lose even if the odds are stacked against you. In this sense, the movie echoed Seediq Bale, though without the soul crushing despair. If there’s anything else in this movie other than the game of baseball, it’s Wei De-sheng and Umin Boya wanting to remind the audience what that Taiwanese spirit means. Perhaps that’s what the stooges of China meant about the movie corrupting Taiwanese subjectivity, as they’ve worked so hard to induce a mass amnesia so people will forget the essence of being Taiwanese.
hansioux, above: THE. BEST. AND MOST. INSIGHTFUL and SPOT ON. REview. EVER. you said it all. loved yr post.
So far, good response from the public. People lining up for autographs since 3am, box office already challenging Cape Number 7.
On KANO and the Vicissitudes of Language
Like many of the “commentators” that have espoused negative opinions on the “Japan-friendliness” of Umin Boya’s film, Kano (2014), before even having the opportunity to watch the film, I suppose I should also respond with some “commentary” to the discourse. Here, I should also make the admission that I also have not had the opportunity to view Kano since I am unable to watch it from overseas, and not due to ideological disagreements as some commentators have opted. Nonetheless, I take my cue from the critics who have not watched the film, but only the 6 minute Youtube teaser clip, and contribute my 2 
.
According to media reports, Kano uses 90% of Japanese dialogue compared with only 10% of local languages (Hoklo, Hakka and indigenous tongues). Hence, questions to whether Kano qualifies as “national cinema” or its eligibility for the Golden Horse Festival were raised because of the “foreign-ness” of the film through its use of Japanese. That said, let us look at another “National Film” (國片) that bends language barriers to its narrative. The film to be discussed is also a historical baseball film, boasting a trans-national cast and production values like Kano, that was nominated for 6 categories in the Golden Horse Festival in 1989. This film is the biopic, Honor Thy Father/A Son Remembers 感恩歲月 (1989), starring Ma Jingtao 馬景濤 and the recently deceased Wu Ma 午馬, narrating the life of the baseball legend, Sadaharu Oh 王貞治. Sadaharu Oh (a citizen of ROC) was born on 1940 in Tokyo, Japan to a Chinese father and a Japanese mother, at a sensitive period in history when hostilities between Japan and China were high. Hence, the film is a portrayal of Sadaharu Oh’s struggles in Japanese society to break through the glass ceiling and his father’s struggles to keep their family out of poverty, while crediting Confucian values to their success in Japan.
This film, despite its location in Japan, is narrated in Mandarin. Further, although Sadaharu Oh holds citizenship of Taiwan, in real life he does not speak Mandarin either, having lived his entire life in Japan. However, there have not been calls to question the “national” nature of this film- it was, after all, nominated in the Golden Horse Festival. In Taiwan’s celebrating this film, it should be fair to suggest that Taiwan regards and claims Sadaharu Oh as their “national hero.” Indeed, the media treats his visits to Taiwan as “homecoming” with high profile coverage. Surely, there are plenty of contradictions and discrepancies in this portrayal of Sadaharu Oh in this film to infuriate the purists? That said, this article is not to criticize the celebration of Sadaharu Oh as a “national hero,” but rather to explore deeper into the film’s discussion of Sadaharu Oh’s dual heritage. Here, let us not forget that Sadaharu Oh is the product of a mixed-race marriage, despite his insistence on holding ROC citizenship in preserving his Chinese identity. Rather, I suggest the Confucian themes of the film offers not 1, but 2 father figures for Sadaharu Oh: his biological father 王仕福 and his Japanese coach, Hiroshi Arakawi 荒川博, who developed his iconic “flamingo” batting style. In the film, both “fathers” nurture him to break down racial barriers to become the baseball legend he is today. In the end, contrary to his father’s wishes to return to China as doctors and engineers, they make their home in Japan, and China becomes a distant memory to the aging father that is gradually supplanted by his son’s latest baseball scores. Although it is important to remember who they were and where they came from, what is significant here in Honor Thy Father is who they are “becoming” as the recently deceased Stuart Hall theorized.
In reflection of the above, we look to Taiwan that also enjoys multiple heritages as a post/colonial society. Rather than rejecting cultural influences of our past and present, that those anti-Japanese critics have so vigilantly decried, our society and people are a generous entity with the capacity to embrace cultures- just as Sadaharu Oh has done in the film. That is what gives Taiwan its character, its ability to expand its tolerances and capacity to its many heritages and to strive to see the good and beyond the hatred and injustice. That Taiwanese no longer wish to look back in anger and shame at its Japanese colonial past, should signify a positive development in its reassessment of its relationship with its former colonial master. This is not to say that nostalgia for the Japanese era means that Taiwanese wish to return to autocratic Japanese rule, but that there is adequate distance between that era and the present to reminisce the better episodes of that time. In my meager viewing of the 6 minute trailer, I am under the impression that Kano rejoices in Taiwanese’ struggles in their rocky trajectory threading through the Hoklo, Hakka, Indigenous, and the Japanese influences on the soil under their feet.
For those critics that cannot tolerate the Japanese-ness of Kano, then I suggest they can watch Little Giants of Hongye 紅葉小巨人 (1988), starring Little League hero “Smiling George” Chao 趙士強. Here is a story of a Chinese coach who goes to Taidong, teaches the “barbaric” tribes to become “civilized” and wins glory for the Republic of China in defeating a Japanese All-Star Team. It should delight the Sino-centric critics how the coach in this film brings the “Promethean torch” of civilization and modernity to the local mountain tribe who abandon their hunting to go to school instead. Of course, they should conveniently forget that the origins of Taiwan’s baseball have roots in Japan (that is airbrushed out of the film). Rest assured, the dialogue is all conducted in Mandarin- even by the black Catholic priest of that community. If the above assessment of Little Giants of Hongye is a little harsh, then one should be reassured that the coach eventually becomes part of the indigenous community by marrying the chief’s daughter and becomes inducted into the tribe. However, even for such a Sino-centric film, it recognizes the integration of cultures and ethnicities for the futures of the people of Taiwan. It is our destiny to mix and to continue to mix. Let us continue to tell stories of who we are becoming and where we want to be.
[steps off soapbox] 
Kungwan, enjoyed reading this. Well said. you gotta see the entire 3 hour movie someday somehow maybe on dvd
in six months or so. you will love it. NOTE: you raised a very interesting point: the golden horse awards: in order to quality for the golden horses, the film can have languages other than chinese or taiwanese or hakka or Aboriginal, but there must be at least a small percentage of Mandarin in the movie to quality for nominations or awards, and this KANO movie has absolutely no Chinese at all. Zero. since this was 1931 before the kmt came to taiwan so force mandarin down the throats of locals. so if kano has no chinese dialog at all, and only uses chinese for the subtitles, which appear on screen above the english subtitles, can the movie even get nominated? good question. and then can it even win awards, which is should for sure, such as for best movie, best directing, best cinematography, best score, best actor (NAGaSE FOR SURE) best screenplay, best production design? And or could Nagase as coach Kondo get nominated or gonged for his stellar performance as the strict kibishi japanese colonial coach with a heart of gold? he deserves best actor award for sure. this was the acting performance of his career, and as some overseas readers here know Nagase appear when he was just 22 – a high school drop out from the countryside of japan trying to make it big in tokyo – when he was cast as one of the leads in the 1989 cult film by jim jarmmusch tiled “mystery train.” And the actor who plays the KANO pitcher also deserves an acting award. this movie will surpass Cape No. 7 in both popularity and movie ticket sales. i wonder what producer wei will do next after this japan/taiwan trilogy is over. anyone know his next project?
and one more question: in the movie in a few scenes hakka is spoken. 1. why was hakka spoken in those scenes and 2. could the use of hakka and tawianese hoklo qualify the movie for the golden horsies?
The star pitcher Ngôo Bîn-tsia̍p is Hakka from Miaoli. In the movie he was trilingual.
Thanks Hansioux. in the little keepsake memorial KANO book i picked up the other day in english/japanese and chinese formats, page 43 does list Ming-chieh Wu as “born in Miaoli in 1912…came to KANO school after
graduating from Maoili Public School…acted as lead pitcher and cleanup hitter as well as captain of his team…”
I see now! So those scenes were of him speaking Hakka in Chiayi at some games or his family cheering him
on in Hakka language? i cannot remember the exact scenes and i do not know hakka but i remember hearing the
musical sounds of it during one major scene in the film. sounds a bit like cantonese to my busasa ears… lovely. ‘‘hang hang liao liao’’ and more
one other scene in movie is hilarious and heartfelt at same time is old grandma haering that her grandson in the radio from japan koshien games has hit a homerun,and her family tells her that he has hit a ‘‘homerun’’ – they use the japanese - english term of “homoo-runnoo” as the Japanese say the word, and she asks in total msytery, ''what’s a homoo-runnoo?" - who ever wrote and directed that scene, bravo to them! the movie has lots of nice touches like that…
fyi here is japanese media reporting the KANO movie news the other day, in translation from the Asahi Shimbun, a leftwing paper:
SATOSHI UKAI/ Correspondent, reports from CHIAYI, Taiwan:
Tens of thousands turned out here for the premiere event of a new film that recounts the inspirational runner-up finish of this southern city’s former Kagi Norin school at the 1931 summer Koshien baseball tournament, when Taiwan was a colony of Japan.
About 60,000 spectators gathered Feb. 22 for a parade by the cast of “KANO” in full costume and popular Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase.
Set during Japan’s colonial rule of Taiwan (1895-1945), the film is based on the true story of the team of the Kagi Norin, which later became the current National Chiayi University, and its coach, Hyotaro Kondo, a native of Ehime Prefecture.
Kondo, played by Nagase, helped lead the team of Japanese, Han Chinese and indigenous Taiwanese players to a victorious campaign at the prestigious Koshien tourney by raising their skill levels and boosting their morale.
The movie was produced by Taiwanese filmmaker Wei Te-sheng, who directed “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” a 2011 film that depicts the indigenous Taiwanese people’s uprising against Japanese colonial rule.
“I think there were both good things and bad things about the period of Japanese rule. I wanted to fairly review the history,” Wei said.
The film will be released Feb. 27 in Taiwan and is slated for prescreenings in Osaka on March 7 and 11.
Problem is the movie won’t play in China, which is the box office that matters here. It will definetively be a hit in Japan, no doubt, and Taiwan, and a darling of festivals as most Taiwanese movies are. But yes, I do not foresee a Golden Horse award stampede.
I wrote the above article as a response to those anti-Japanese racists/Chinese supremacists to remind them of their own hyprocrisy in bending languages to suit their narratives in earlier films. I’m glad that you enjoyed my veiled rant. I have been waiting for a film like KANO to be made for a very long time. I hope that my anticipation will be rewarded. So far all the reviews coming out seem promising. I just hope that the DVD version will be available soon.
I think KANO will push the boundaries of what makes a “Chinese Language Film” that the Golden Horse Film Festival aims to celebrate. I look forward to the debates that will ensue from this film. Director Hou Hsiao Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang have directed French films but the films have not been regarded as Taiwanese, however KANO will create many questions on what defines a “National Film”. What is interesting here is when Taiwan is placed at the centre of the perspective in narrating stories: we see that Taiwanese are claiming that Japanese history is also part of Taiwan history; just as Chinese history is only a part of Taiwan history. Thus, in claiming ownership of histories (read: plural) the film makes a political statement in embracing and not purging “foreign influences” by indigenizing the modernity for Taiwan.
I don’t think the intention is for the film to screen in China. The scenes in KANO depicting multitudes of Taiwanese gleefully waving Imperial Japanese flags will certainly rile, not only the Chinese censorship board, but also the Chinese public. For many years, the promise of riches of the “lucrative” Chinese market has tempted many directors to target Chinese audiences. So far, those films made for the Chinese market have not enjoyed much box office success. Many factors such as cultural differences, censorship, and piracy contribute to the lack of success. Further, China’s investment into Soft Power to counter Hollywood prioritizes Chinese filmmakers over Taiwanese. With KANO bypassing the Chinese market, but attempting the Japanese market is an interesting development in Taiwan’s film industry.
What I think that Taiwanese filmmakers have gone wrong is that Chinese audiences are looking for a “mythical China” in Taiwan, just as the hordes of Chinese tourists are looking for traces of classical China and the “Chinese-ness” of Taiwan. Conversely, Taiwanese want to see a truer representation of themselves in their diversity. The co-production sequel Eat Drink, Man, Woman 2 to Ang Lee’s masterpiece, demonstrates that failure to attract Taiwanese audiences with its overt re-unification themes (it is a truly awful and cringeworthy film with all that “blood is thicker than water” crap). Dynastic historical films (pre-Republican era) have currency in Taiwan, but interpretations of contemporary history is still very divided.
There appears to be a trend for Taiwanese films to cater to Taiwanese audiences, when we consider films such as She is the Apple of my Eye, Zone Pro Site, Da Dao Cheng, and the upcoming White Rice Bomber. Despite piracy, Taiwan is one of the most lucrative Asian markets for Hollywood since opening up the entertainment market (WTO), with a great numbers of moviegoers filling theatre seats. Hence, it appears that Taiwanese directors are focusing on the local market since it is possible to make a profit, given the number of moviegoers willing to watch “National Films” as long as the film is up to industry standard and the story relevant to their experiences.
A film doesn’t have to be in Chinese to qualify for Golden Horse. According to the rules, a film in a foreign language can still qualify if it is filmed in Taiwan by a Taiwanese director and has a certain percentage of Taiwanese cast and crew. That is how I submitted my film to the last awards, and it qualified, even though it ultimately wasn’t accepted (But neither was David Loman, so I’m not complaining).