Thanks for the clarification of the rules of eligiblity.
I too am relieved that David Loman was not accepted. Though I am a fan of 豬哥亮 (pre-gentrification), that film really sucked.
KANO movie trivia: the little kid who wants to join the team in 1929 but is too young to join, he’s just 12 or so in the movie, his role is of the real player later in life called Wu Po, but this kid actor’s face is very expressive if you have seen the movie, he almost steals the show, even though he is only in a few scenes, but he has the face and smile/grin/sadness of a classic child actor. I wondered who he was. He becomes the team mascot sort of, and evey day rides his bike to the
practice field to help out, pick up balls, carry water, deliver messages…but he never gets to go to Japan. Just a local kid but he plays the role to a perfection. Half gamin, half comedian.
Apple Daily tells me: His name is 魏祈安(Wei Chi An)
appledaily.com.tw/appledaily … 2/35672836
he is producer Wei’s nephew, so the son of Wei’s younger brother.
I think maybe he lives in Tainan because Mr. Wei is from Tainan. but perhaps family now lives in taiepi. anybody know?
actually, the rule doesn’t say anything about being Taiwanese or filmed in Taiwan. It says:
影片語言及工作人員比例：
所有報名影片須符合以下其中一項之條件：
片中二分之一以上對白須為華語（華人地區所使用之主要語言或方言，但不包括配音），影片若無對白則須符合第二項條件。
影片工作人員中導演必須為華人，其他主創工作人員中五位（含）以上需為華人。（「主創工作人員」之範圍以下列十項獎項計算，每個項目以一人計，包括：男主角、女主角、男配角、女配角、原著劇本（或改編劇本）、攝影、美術設計、剪輯、原創電影音樂以及音效。）
Either half of the dialog has to be Chinese, Mandarin or dialects are fine, or the director and 5 major crew member has to be Chinese (major crew members includes male lead, female lead, male supporting actor, female supporting actor, script author, cinematographer, art design, editor, music or sound effect guys).
Seediq Bale obviously fit the criteria, because director Wei is obviously Han Taiwanese. But for Kano, director Umin Boya is not Chinese, he is Taiwanese Seediq Amis.
[quote=“hansioux”]
Seediq Bale obviously fit the criteria, because director Wei is obviously Han Taiwanese. But for Kano, director Umin Boya is not Chinese, he is Taiwanese Seediq Amis.[/quote]
That is amazing that rule. that means Taiwanese ID carrying Aborigines are not qualified to be nominated? Amazing. But since the movie is in Hoklo and Hakka some of the time, just 20 percent, what will happen to this film wit the Golden Horse awards? I wonder if the local Chinese lingo media is covering this controversy if it is a controversy. i am sure Wei knew what he was doing, so maybe this won’t impact the film’s awards chances at all. but i wonder…if local media asking these questions. Hmmm
Surely they will just say he is a ‘huaren’? A few indigenous activists will protest and be ignored.
The Golden Horse Awards was established to stop the flood of Taiwanese Holo movies in the 60s. They wanted to promote high class Mandarin movies. There has always been a strong Chinese centric core to that award.
By the way, I wonder why Life of Pi didn’t bother going for the Golden Horse award. The director was obviously Chinese. Ang Lee said Life of Pi is a Taiwanese movie, because he made it, I would have loved to see Suraj Sharma win the best actor award at the Golden Horse.
Yeah, I got the Taiwan location requirement mixed up with the GIO rules for what constitutes a Taiwanese film, which are obviously different from the GH. In any case, I am not Han Chinese but I was counted as a 華人 for the GH director/editor/cinematographer requirements, so I’d think any aboriginal with an ID card would have no trouble either.
As you said that kid is played by Wei’s nephew. He is a brilliant actor, and the way he speaks and looks totally fit into the era. Don’t know anymore about the actor.
The kid character Ngô Po (吳波) eventually became a Hall-of-Famer in Japanese professional baseball. He later changed his named to Ishii Shosei (石井 昌征), but on his jersey it remained Go Shosei (吳 昌征). Go played for the Tokyo Giants (1937–43), and was nicknamed The Human Locomotive, even though he was only 167.6cm and 63.5kg. Known for his speed, Go won two batting titles and 2 stolen base titles. Go was the league MVP in 1943.
When Go was a Giant, he was teammate to Japan’s only Filipino professional baseball player, Adelano Rivera in 1939 (Rivera was invited by the Giants after his impressive performance during Giants’ barnstorming games in the Philippines, and later hit the first ever grand slam in Giant’s history), and Victor Starffin (1934-44), Japan’s only Russian professional baseball player. Yeah, Tokyo Giants was very international during those years.
After his MVP year, Go was going to return to Taiwan. But on the way back he was introduced to the owner of the Tigers, so Go went to play for the Osaka Tigers (it’s like a Redsox going to play for the Yankees after winning AL MVP). However the 1944 season was cut short, since it’s hard to play baseball when crazy prime minister is busy losing a war by being crazy, most citizens are starving and planes are bombing the country with air superiority.
In 1945, the league was suspended all together. To solve the food shortage issue, Koshien was converted into a yam farm. Since Go graduated from the Kagi School of Agricultural and Forestry, he was appointed to instructor of the yam farming operation. According to the Japanese wiki, he improved soil quality.
After the games resumed in 1946, Tigers had a pitching shortage. Go became a pitcher and threw the first no-hitters after the war. When he wasn’t pitching, Go was the lead off batter playing CF.
Go went on to play for the Orions in 1950, and retired in 1957. He was the first player to have a 20-year career in NPB.
Interesting news article: udn.com/NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT/ENT3/8520835.shtml
Wei said “Just because I didn’t deliberately portray the Japanese in a bad light, doesn’t mean I portrayed them through rose-colored glasses.”
In 1930, Japan has colonized Taiwan for 30 years. According to survey at the time, in Tainan Prefecture (included Chiayi), 48.6% of peole between 10~19 can speak Japanese. Those admitted to Kagi School of Agricultural and Forestry had to be proficient in Japanese, at least to a certain degree.
[spoiler]What’s different from historical facts:
The Wushe incident took place in 1930, the Chianan Irrigation system was also completed in May 1930. The movie delayed the completion of the system till 1931, when Kano won in the All Taiwan Highscool games. In 1930, Kano was the runner up, losing to Taipei First School.
The Chiayi central water fountain in front of the train station was being constructed in the movie (set in 1930). The news says the location was the original city wall, which collapsed in 1906 after a major earthquake. It was rebuilt into a traffic circle, which included the a water fountain. Therefore the movie would have shifted the date of the water fountain construction as well. Though in the photo I posted before, it seems like at the center of the traffic circle was a giant ass tree. It would mean the basic shape of the current water fountain was built much later.
Circle with giant tree
Circle without giant tree
twmemory.org/?p=3723
By the way, that Baroque ass building was the Tagasago Beer House…
In the movie, when Soo hit his inside-the-park home run, there was no broken bat. However, during filming the bat broke, and it looked very dramatic, so they kept it.
What was in accordance to history:
When the ceremony started Kano arrived late, which seems like a dramatization, but it was real. According to Soo, when their ship arrived in Osaka, there was just 20 minutes left before the ceremony. So Konto had to pay for the whole team to get to Koshien by taxi.
Proclaiming they’ll steal second and third is something Kano players did.
Go’s finger bled in the last game causing control issues. His teammates asked him to throw fastballs and let them get the outs. Japanese news paper documented after the timeout when they get a fly out, the fielders yelled いらっしゃい (Irasshai, Japanes for welcome) in that final game.[/spoiler]
[quote=“hansioux”]Interesting news article: udn.com/NEWS/ENTERTAINMENT/ENT3/8520835.shtml
[/quote]
thanks for link to the UDN story, i cut it out of the newspaper today too, a full page. part that was interesting to me, among others was that producer WEI at first was thinking of calling the movie “Golden Koshien” but he got to thinking the PR potential of a good title to attract eyeballs and media attention, he began to think that GK was too “soft” – whatever that means, if that is the correct translation – too comic sense, he made a list of some other titles but all of them seemed to
cumberson, so he and his team finally settled on the school’s nameL KANO, which in Japanese stands for Ka-Gi No-Rin Gakko …Kagi is Chiayi in Japanese and the first part of the word KA became the team’s nickname’s first sound and NO is from the second word of NO-LIn which is two words that mean agricultural and LIN is foresty…and they took the NO from NO-LIN and gakko just means high school…so the school name was dubbed KA-NO…or KANO with the emphasis on the NO sound at the end…I think WEI made a good choice by going with KANO, for both advertiising purposes and PR. so far sound like the movie will surpass ticket sales of Cape No 7 and Seediq…
BUT WILL IT PLAY IN PEORIA, er, i mean JAPAN?
The Golden Horse Awards was established to stop the flood of Taiwanese Holo movies in the 60s. They wanted to promote high class Mandarin movies. There has always been a strong Chinese centric core to that award.
By the way, I wonder why Life of Pi didn’t bother going for the Golden Horse award. The director was obviously Chinese. Ang Lee said Life of Pi is a Taiwanese movie, because he made it, I would have loved to see Suraj Sharma win the best actor award at the Golden Horse.[/quote]
It would’ve been really cool to see Suraj Sharma win best actor. Arguably, he has become “Taiwanized” during his time in with Ang Lee in Taiwan- in interviews, he always refers to Ang Lee with the honorific “Dao Yen”, like all the other Taiwanese workers on the set.
I am also reminded of, the director of Pinoy Sunday 台北星期天 (2009), Wi Ding Ho 何蔚庭, a Malaysian Chinese, who did get best new director award at the 47th Golden Horse Festival for his film on overseas Filipino workers (OFW). But I have yet to see a “foreigner” (non-Han or non-ROC/PRC nationality) win the awards.
Here is a useful link to an United Daily News editorial on KANO by an academic, Albert Tzeng 曾柏文.
Note: according to his facebook, he deliberately posted his piece on a pan-blue media outlet to “stimulate” their thinking on Taiwan.
KANO熱血野球外的歷史扣問（上）：殖民現代性的人本辯證
[Transl: Historical Quesions Beyond KANO’s Fervour (Part 1): Dialectics of Colonial Modernity and Humanity]
Brief:
Although Umin Boya directed KANO, this film is also considered by many to be Wei Te-Sheng’s work. Thus, it should be seen with Seediq Bale in mind as a companion piece. If Seediq Bale can be read as a struggle against the Japanese colonials, then KANO can be read as a struggle with the Japanese.
● 魏德聖的創作主軸──台日殖民連帶
Wei Te-Sheng’s central themes- Taiwan’s post/colonial relationship with Japan.
● 關鍵側線：錠者博美的「嘉義行」
Selective memories and re-imaginings of history in revisiting Chiayi.
● 賽德克vs. KANO：殖民現代性的辯證
The dialectics of colonial modernity in Seediq Bale vs. KANO.
● 人本主義的歷史凝視
Establishing a historical perspective from the individual- Humanism.
question: while Wei is listed as the producer, one of two producers, and Umin Boya as the director, there has been
some speculation in the media and in blogs that Wei was actually the “auteur” of the movie and Umin Boya was hired to be in essence “a second director” but listed as the director for appearance’s sake. A movie director in Taipei, Taiwanese man mid 50s, says when i asked him if perhaps Umin Boya was not really the principla director per se but more of a hired hand and second director with Wei looking over his shoulder all the time and advising him and even being in set most of the time:
"What else could it possibly be? The fact is, Umin Boya is a rookie and would not not capable of directing
such a heavy film story in additional to lacking skillfulness in directing cannot makes
no
money in entertaining business. Right?’’
Umin Boya was certainly on set every day and was the director in terms of the credits. But was Wei the real director and what was his real role in the movie? Many times this kind of thing happens worldwide, Hollywoodwood too, and it’s still a learning experience for Umin Boya.
Possible?
[quote=“Cola”]question: while Wei is listed as the producer, one of two producers, and Umin Boya as the director, there has been
some speculation in the media and in blogs that Wei was actually the “auteur” of the movie and Umin Boya was hired to be in essence “a second director” but listed as the director for appearance’s sake. A movie director in Taipei, Taiwanese man mid 50s, says when i asked him if perhaps Umin Boya was not really the principla director per se but more of a hired hand and second director with Wei looking over his shoulder all the time and advising him and even being in set most of the time:
"What else could it possibly be? The fact is, Umin Boya is a rookie and would not not capable of directing
such a heavy film story in additional to lacking skillfulness in directing cannot makes
no
money in entertaining business. Right?’’
Umin Boya was certainly on set every day and was the director in terms of the credits. But was Wei the real director and what was his real role in the movie? Many times this kind of thing happens worldwide, Hollywoodwood too, and it’s still a learning experience for Umin Boya.
Possible?[/quote]
Umin Boya has award winning director credit and multiple nominations to his belt. Wei was feeling fatigued after Seediq Bale, understandably. So he wanted someone else to direct. I have no doubt that Umin would goto Wei for directing advise, but I believe the final game is so well filmed because Umin, someone who played and loves baseball, as its director.
In the interview with UDN, Umin Boya explains has been directing for 6-7 years with quite a few TV credits to his name. KANO is his first feature film.
@Hansioux
Would you say that Umin Boya’s crossover to feature film has been successful? Quite a few films have a distinct TV feel about it, e.g. Viva Baseball 球來就打. Was the script successfully adapted into film of 3 hrs? Was his choice to use “average people actors” (素人演員) a good decision? What could the film have done better?
Thanks!
[quote=“kungwan2000”]
@Hansioux
Would you say that Umin Boya’s crossover to feature film has been successful? Quite a few films have a distinct TV feel about it, e.g. Viva Baseball 球來就打. Was the script successfully adapted into film of 3 hrs? Was his choice to use “average people actors” (素人演員) a good decision? What could the film have done better?
Thanks![/quote]
Only a few actors with speaking roles take me out of the story a little bit. One is the actress playing A-tsīng, the protagonist’s love interest. She got better in her non-spoken scenes. The other one is the grandma, but less due to her acting, more due to her make up. And they are probably not average people actors. The rest of them are pretty amazing.
Viva Baseball was a tragedy… It had a great premise but was executed poorly (though Taiwanese fans are tired of hearing about gangsters controlling the game, if they wanted to see that they could just go watch a real game, ouch). The baseball scenes in Viva Baseball doesn’t flow like what we see in Kano, but to be honest, few baseball films has Kano’s tempo. The filming of baseball was decent, but actors doing the baseball looked like they are actors playing baseball… I don’t think that movie could be salvaged. Would you do a Blacksox movie in 1921? It’s just too soon. Heck, people still said don’t make it when they wanted to film Eight Men Out. Maybe when baseball is back to being as popular as it was, then the movie would generate more fans trying to understand the tragic past…
Another movie last year was Baseballove. Also star power, plus a lot of professional players. It’s back story is almost as depressing as Viva Baseball, it’s too close to home for fans. But Baseballove is barely about baseball. Baseball scenes were terrible. It’s mostly about love and family and baseball is just a background story. Viva Baseball has better baseball scenes, and arguably a more interesting back plot, but Baseballove has more heart in terms of being with family. But both executed poorly. There’s a lot of thing both movies wants to cram in, but few things are tied up at the end. Both movies ended up saying very little.
There was actually another baseball movie last year, called Faithball, which was based on a true story, was better than the others in my opinion. It is a lot more formulaic in terms of being a typical sports movie, where as Kano has the structures, but I barely noticed it (good thing in most parts, bad in some). In Faithball, the head master threatening to disband the baseball club, a fired teaching trying to rebuild the team, finding other players to fill out the 3 people baseball club, getting the Mazu temple to fund the team and winning a crap load of games in a montage… that sort of thing. Viva Baseball and Baseballove have a lot more star power, and more promotion, where as Faithball players were actual high school players, but their acting wasn’t bad either. The fact that they are actual players shows in the baseball scenes. If one goes to the movie expecting to gt a bad news bearish movie, the movie probably would hit the right spot, almost, because the tempo and focus of the movie is also not quite there…
I’d say the director is the one covered in mud, standing in the middle of the rain, hugging or scolding the actors/players. If you saw the “How KANO was done” special, you know who it was.
BTW, KANO got 65 million nts -over 2 million usd- in 4 days. So far, so good. For Beyond Beauty - Taiwan from Above, breaking even was a nail biter for a while. Seems KANO will not have such pains, though the publicity campaign is a bit overwhelming.
Film review from Hong Kong, educated in UK, writing for USA film trade mag, reviews KANO like this, using Hollywood lingo and movie slang: helmer, tyro, etc
variety.com/2014/film/reviews/fi … 201125136/
Masatoshi Nagase gives a masterful performance as a baseball coach in this lengthy but big-hearted 1930s sports saga.
Though the focus here is mainly on the courageous perseverance of star pitcher Akira Go (Tsao Yu-ning), the supporting players, who reveal their character through their playing styles, also come into their own. Still, despite the film’s length, there’s no family background or other relational context to enrich the players beyond their behavior on the field. And although Kano was touted as the most ethnically integrated team at the time, the screenplay provides insufficient class-based or cultural distinctions among the Japanese, Chinese and Aboriginal players.
A prolific actor of Aboriginal descent (he had a supporting role in “Seediq Bale”), Umin Boya draws on his own baseball experience to direct a young cast culled from several high-school baseball leagues. The helmer handles emotions with a discreet touch, such as Kondo’s tender relationship with his wife (Machiko Ono) and two cute daughters, or the subtly but powerfully expressed love between Go and his friend Shizuka.
The film, however, is not just a nostalgic valentine to Taiwan’s most popular sport; following “Cape No. 7″ and “Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale,” it completes Wei’s colonial trilogy exploring ambivalent Taiwanese attitudes toward Japanese rule from 1895-1945. Set in the same year as the Wushe Incident recounted in “Seeidiq Bale,” “Kano” may at first appear to paint a rosy picture of Japanese benevolence, but in fact the two films are of a piece, both telling David-and-Goliath stories in which an underdog earns a superpower’s respect, not through victory so much as sheer go-for-broke spirit. Seen in this light, “Kano” is full of contempo reflections on Taiwanese identity as they try to find their place on increasingly challenging global, diplomatic and economic playing fields.
A lengthy but big-hearted sports saga set in 1931, “Kano” traces how a ragtag baseball team made up of farm boys from southern Taiwan made it to the finals at Koshien, Japan’s national high-school baseball championship. Penned and produced by hitmaker Wei Te-sheng and directed by tyro helmer Umin Boya, this $10 million production reps a landmark feat in the way it revisits Taiwan’s long-suppressed colonial past with great authenticity and resplendent style, yielding a diffuse but nuanced drama anchored by Masatoshi Nagase’s masterful performance as the inspiring coach. Still, viewers will have to really love baseball to stay focused on the games, which take up the lion’s share of the three-hour running time. Pic has earned a terrific $22 million domestically in just four days, but overseas biz will be hit-or-miss.
The VARIETY reviwer, a Hong Kong Chinese woman, says that in regards to my understanding that Hoklo and Hakka are separate languages, she tells me:
''Taiwanese, or “Taiyu,” originated from Hokkien, or Min’nan dialect spoken in parts of Fujian province, but has incorporated many Japanese words so it’s unique. Like Hakka, Taiwanese, or Hokkien, or Hoklo, are not separate languages. They are all dialects within the Chinese language. "
Is she correct? I had said to her : "Ma’am, from what i understand Taiwanese is not a dialect, Hakka is not a dialect; they are separate languages. "
where does truth lie?
[quote=“Cola”]The VARIETY reviwer Maggie Lee says that in regards to my understanding that Hoklo and Hakka are separate languages, she tells me:
''Taiwanese, or “Taiyu,” originated from Hokkien, or Min’nan dialect spoken in parts of Fujian province, but has incorporated many Japanese words so it’s unique. Like Hakka, Taiwanese, or Hokkien, or Hoklo, are not separate languages. They are all dialects within the Chinese language. "
Is she correct? I had said to her : "Maggie, from what i understand Taiwanese is not a dialect, Hakka is not a dialect; they are separate languages. "
where does truth lie?[/quote]
Holo and Hakka are languages in the Sinitic family, which is of the Sino-Tibetan family. Just like Spanish and Portuguese are languages in the Romance family, which is of the Indo-European family.
But if she insists, you can tell her if she doesn’t like the linguistic definition, then she should look up the phrase “A language is a dialect with an army and navy.”