courtesy of takungpao.com
CAPE NO. 7 director Wei Te-Sheng invested 12 years and over NT$700 million into the record breaking Taiwan film industry heroic epic film SEEDIQ BALE with famous directors John Woo (Ng Yu Sum) as its producer and Ang Lee as its consultant will open September 9 and 30 in two parts in Taiwan and October and November in Hong Kong.
SEEDIQ's story will mainly be about the "Wushe Incident" 81 years ago when Taiwan natives rose up against Japan's colonial rule. As early as 12 years ago, Hsiao Wei spent all over his life saving of NT$2.5 million to make a five minute trailer to raise financing. Although he
was made fun of in the Taiwan film industry as "The world's silliest person", but his "silliness" touched Ng Yu Sum and Ang Lee to lend a hand. For this film, Hsiao Wei invested all his profit for CAPE NO. 7 and the government cash prize into SEEDIQ. During the preparation he ran into a flood that ruined the set and sent the cost soaring from the initial NT$ 200 million to 500 million. For awhile due to salary issue the production halted. Yet his determination not only touched industrialists but also Jay Chou (Chow Kit Lun), Vivian Hsu (Tsui Yeuk Suen) and others all loaned money to the cause. Hsiao Wei described the four month long shoot as "everyday feels like standing on the edge of a cliff, but ultimately a miracle appeared."
This time the production team had over 400 people from Taiwan, Japan and Korea, thus communication taught Hsiao Wei a lesson; shooting in dangerous locations like steep hills and roaring rapids, landslides and scratches from sharp rocks became common place. Poisonous plants made itching unbearable. Sometimes workers broke their limbs, wild boars bit people, almost no one was spared from injury or illness. Hsiao Wei also required stitches after cutting his calf from a fall. The poor environment was beyond anyone's imagination. No wonder he described "filmmaking is war". However his passion and determination touched everyone.
As the film wrapped, another nightmare appeared. The original financing either has not appeared or changed. Luckily Central Motion Pictures chair T. C. Guo (Terry Guo's brother) held a press conference to announce a NT$ 350 million investment for the film to reach all of its
financing. As the dream was near completion, Hsiao Wei sentimentally said, "This film absolutely will not make Chinese viewers lose face, because we are good enough, because we are proud enough!" On March 23 Hsiao Wei will come to Hong Kong for a forum to share the hard journey from CAPE NO.7 to SEEDIQ BALE.
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