A forgotten piece of history, a heart-wrenching love story.

In 1895, the two Hakka youths Wu Tang-hsing and Hsu Hsiang married against social whispers, vowed to support each other and never to abandon one another. But the most destructive Taiwanese resistance movement against Japanese rule breaks out after the Qing government's ceding of Taiwan to Japan in the Treaty of Shimonoseki following the First Sino-Japanese War. Knowing their lack of military strength and power but determined to defend their homeland, Wu and his supporters lead a militia resistance against Japanese military occupants. Hsu, on the other hand, leads the women of the village to brace the hardship, taking care of all the village's living and farming, providing their men their strongest support.

"I see it as an anti-war film embracing humanism." says Wen Shung-Hau, who played Wu Tang-hsing.

Though this film is centered around war, it does not have any scenes of bloody combats nor criticisms of history. It reflects the loyalty and camaraderie between the master and the servants, the compatriotism shared among villagers, and the immeasurable care and love between a mother and her child. The passion of the Taiwanese people defending their homeland and the obligations of the Japanese army arriving to Taiwan with their home country's expectations intertwine and produce a picture of lives swayed by the tide of war...

Genre: Romance, Drama
Length: 110 min
Director: Zhiyu Hong
Cast: Shung-Hau Wen, Ching-Hua Yang

Awards and Honors

The Chinese Film Critiques Circle Award (Taiwan) ?Top 10 Asian Films in 2008

About the Director

Zhiyu Hong was born in Kaoshiong, Taiwan. He graduated from the Shih Hsin University, specializing in television and broadcasting. He has worked as an assistant director, an editor and an associate director as well as in movie post production. He has involved in production for several documentaries and short films. The movie in 2000 started his journey