Followers of Taiwanese cinema will need no introduction to director Wu Nien-jen: as a screenwriter, he has penned over 70 scripts for Taiwan's New Cinema directors, including Hou Hsiao-hsien (Dust in the Wind), Wang Tung (Hill of no Return), and Edward Yang (That Day on the Beach). 1994 saw Wu makes his debut as director with A Borrowed Life. This year's Venice Film Festival sees Wu in competition with his second movie, Buddha Bless America.
A Borrowed Life focused on the confusion felt by the generation who grew up in the years of Nationalist (Kuomintang) rule that followed Chiang Kai-shek's flight to the island in 1949. Up to the end of World War Two, the Japanese had ruled Taiwan for 45 years; many people had assimilated Japanese culture and customs, something which caused a cultural rift with a younger generation educated by Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists.
Buddha Bless America again concentrates on the influence of a foreign culture on Taiwan, but this time it's America. 'Even though America has never occupied Taiwan, its influence over the Taiwanese people is far greater [than Japan's]' says Wu. 'Its influence extends beyond the cultural and economic to the most important domain of all politics.'
The American presence in Taiwan began when the US entered into a defence treaty with the island after the outbreak of the Korean War in 1950. Fearing that Communism would overrun Asia, the Americans stationed troops on the island as a barrier to further expansion. American involvement in Taiwan's defence continues unofficially today, as was recently demonstrated by their dispatch of a US fleet during China's recent war games off the coast of Taiwan.
'A Borrowed Life touched on Taiwan's connection with Japan.
It seemed like a logical next step to do one on the Taiwan-US connection,' says Wu.
Buddha Bless America is set in southern Taiwan in the late 60s, and shows the effect the arrival of the US military has on a rural village. When the residents are told that US troops will be performing military exercises on their land, they are wary. However, Brain, an educated villager with a degree of respect for the Americans, convinces them that the US troops will be more careful than their Taiwanese counterparts.
Unfortunately, he's wrong, and tanks ride roughshod over the villagers' land and crops. More misunderstandings occur when government translators misrepresent the villagers as beggars and the US troops as tyrants. Indignant, the villagers turn to scavenging and then stealing goods from the camp, until Brain tries to outdo everybody by taking two huge trunks. But inside are the bodies of two dead US servicemen
'The film was based on a real life story of a high-school pal,' says Wu. 'It happened some 25 years ago. It is one of those 'tales that beg to be told and retold time and again', and has been one of my favourite fireside stories ever since I began writing.'
Wu originally felt that the story was too elaborate and expensive to be filmed and mooted it for other media, including a comic strip. 'But deep down, I thought it would be a waste not to visualise the story,' he says.
The resulting movie unspools with a delicate humour, and possesses a deftness of touch absent from A Borrowed Life. The friction between the villagers and the American troops is handled gently by means of some comic exchanges: for instance, Granny tries to fend off a group of tanks advancing over her crops with nothing but a stick and some ribald language. But although the tone is generally light, Wu does include some graver images, like one of a young child frozen to the spot with fear as US troops advance around him.
Buddha's quiet pacing is reminiscent of Hou Hsiao-hsien, whose style exerted a noticeable influence over A Borrowed Life. The humour, coupled with a straightforward narrative, make Buddha Bless America a much breezier watch than expected. Furthermore, those without a working knowledge of Taiwanese history will find the film accessible. 'I want to break down this huge gap between artist and his subject matter, between a film and its audience, that New Cinema has become notorious for,' says Wu.
The film finishes with the title 'Did the Americans ever leave?' a reference to the continuing influence the US has over Taiwan. 'To Third World countries and developing countries, it [the US] acts friendly, but it keeps forcing American ways culture, ideas and systems onto others just because it has the political superiority,' says Wu. 'Intentionally or unintentionally, they ignore the individuality of other peoples and cultures.'
Richard James Havis
Prods: Yang Teng-kuei, Yeh Wen-li
Exec prod: Pee Jian-hsin
Dir/scr: Wu Nien-jen
Cast: Lin Wen-sheng, Lin Cheng-sheng, Chiang Shu-na, Yang Tzong-hsien, Lee Hsin-tzong
Running time: 111 mins
Intl sales: Taiwan Film Centre
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