1895 in Formosa

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Movie: 1895 in Formosa / 1895 / Blue Brave
Chinese: 一八九五
Director: Chih-yu Hung
Writer: Miao-hui Kao (Screenplay) / Chiao Li (Novel)
Producer:
Cinematographer: Wei-han Yang
Music: Deon Lee / Jeffrey Cheng
Release Date: November 7, 2008
Runtime: 110 min.
Language: Hakka, Japanese
Country: Taiwan

Plot

"1895" tells the story of the resistance against the Japanese invasion in 1895 (the biggest war in Taiwan's history). After the 1894 Sino-Japanese war, the Qing government ceded Taiwan to Japan. After hearing the news, some groups of Taiwanese people organized their own resistance to establish the Taiwan Republic.

After the Japanese military on the northeast coast of Taiwan most officials fled to China and Taipei was taken with minimal effort. Three young Taiwanese youths, Tang-hsing We, Hsiang Hsu, Shao-tsu Chiang, organized a guerrilla front to fight the Japanese.

Notes

The budget for "1895" was NT$60 million (U.S. 1.8 million), while filming took place in over 30 different locations in Taiwan.
To film one fight scene between guerrilla forces and the Japanese army, the movie company was given 4.7 acres of land on a sugar cane field by the Taiwan Sugar Corporation. The filmmakers burned that entire field for the scene.

Cast

Comments

Comment #3
Jens Says:
Jan 02 2010 4:18 pm

Is there a DVD edition with English subtitles?
Comment #2
fungwei Says:
Apr 07 2009 1:28 pm

I watched it on DVD and the soundtrack by the Korean composer is very moving... a great historical movie for Taiwan.
Comment #1
kc Says:
Mar 01 2009 12:28 am

The movie was predominantly in Japanese and Hakka. There were significant dialogue in Taiwanese (Hoklo) as well. The main and initial group was the Hakka ethnic group. The more rowdy 2nd group was the Hoklo Taiwanese group which also had 3 aboriginals. Representation of the 3 ethnic groups of Taiwan are Taiwanese as a whole and resisted the Japanese.