Review of Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale - Part 1: The Sun Flag (2011) by Jimmy N — 19 Aug 2012

An ambitious and violent epic. The most expensive Taiwanese film made so far, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale is pretty much Avatar without the science fiction aspects. Its a bit of Apocalypto, a little bit of Braveheart, and little bit Pocahontas/Last of the Mohicans.

I watched the uncut version, which is roughly 4.5 hours in length. Divided into two parts, the movie is a bit overlong since it has so many characters. The first half is the Japanese invasion of the island, and the subsequent enslavement of the natives. The second half is them fighting back.

The only thing I can commend about this movie is the setting. There is lots of beautiful jungle used on location and it looks vibrant.

The movie is soaked in melodrama, with one dimensional cannon fodder villains. At times it gets a bit ridiculous in the action scenes because the Japanese soldiers are slaughtered in droves and never fight back.

The violence get a bit tiresome, as it could have used some better pacing. Instead it just had really long battle scenes with lots of people from both sides getting shot or decapitated.

Perhaps the International 2.5 hour cut was better. But I thought it was a nicely made movie, just a bit too one sided in the perspective department and the character development.