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Monday, October 08, 2012

Chp 422. Warriors Of The Rainbow


When I told my friend I was going to watch this movie called “Warriors Of The Rainbow”, his first reaction was, “Dude, haha, the name sounds a bit gay, don’t ya think? Rainbow warrior? Seriously?”

Lolz, well, I never thought of it that way. I don’t have anything against gay pride, but that doesn’t mean I must watch gay movies just to show my support to the rainbow movement.

“Noooo idiot, this movie was recommended to me by a friend with whom I share similar taste in movies. He told me to watch it definitely... He’s the same guy who recently told us to watch “The Flowers of War” which you initially thought was gay too because of the FLOWERS but it was an awesome movie, remember?”

He nodded.

Ahh… The Flowers Of War.  Such a tear-jerker. One of the best movies I have seen this year.

Whenever I’m about to watch a foreign language film, I always do a quick research online first. The director of TFOW was Yimou Zhang, who directed three of my all-time favorite Chinese language movies - Hero, House Of Flying Daggers and Curse Of The Golden Flower. But I was a bit skeptical as all those movies were during ancient China, whereas TFOW was during Japan’s invasion of Nanking in 1937. Will he be equally good in making a post-modern era movie? Christian Bale was in the movie and it had a good rating on IMDB so we decided to watch it. Oh, what an awesome movie it was!

 

The conflicts between the convent girls and the prostitutes were captured and portrayed beautifully. The movie depicted humanity at its finest, about how some of us are like savages in the worst of times while others sacrifice themselves for a noble cause.  I highly recommend you watch it too.

Now, coming to the topic of this post – Warriors Of The Rainbow.



When we watch something extremely touching, even if we are the most testosterone pumped up male, sometimes a tear involuntarily rolls down our cheek (unless of course you’re some sociopath devoid of any human emotions and feelings). For me, while I was watching WOTR, there were at least more than ten occasions when I had to wipe the tears off my cheeks. The last time something like that happened to me was when I watched Hotel Rwanda many years ago.

WOTR really really touched me because, being a Mizo, I found so many similarities between our Mizo tribe and the Seediq Bales. We’re both head-hunters, collecting heads of the people we killed in battle to display our feat, and at the same time we’re not like the headhunters of Africa where headhunting is more related to cannibalism over there. We both fought against other clans of our tribe regularly, living separately at our respective villages headed by a chief. We have our own territories or “hunting ground”, and we love to celebrate by sitting around a fireplace and getting drunk while dancing with the womenfolk in rhythm to the music beat. The men do the fighting and hunting while the women do the cooking and weaving. We were animists, and the Seediqs believed in something like an afterlife beyond the rainbow.

I know, I know, that is pretty much a common tribal trait across the world, especially a warrior tribe. But watching the movie gave me goosebumps and I had this really strong feeling of kinship with the Seediqs.

The Japanese took a long time to conquer them, wherein they lost thousands of troops against a few Seediq warriors because of their jungle warfare tactic and unconditional courage and love for their homeland. Similarly, the British army took a while to conquer our tribe even though they had far superior weapons and artillery.

The movie is based on a true event called the “Wushe incident”. Well, there’s this recent Mizo movie released in Mizoram about the historical massacre of Khawnglung Run village, which is also based on a true story. Below is a trailer of that movie –



Yes you’ll see so many similarities between the Mizos and Seediqs, though the two film scripts are very different (one is about a struggle to rescue the love of his life, while the other is a struggle to lead the people he loves to freedom from the invading Japanese forces)



Of course there is a huge difference in the production quality of the two trailers displayed above due to the amount of money and talent invested in the projects (plus, the executive producer of WOTR is John-fucking-awesome-Woo). But it really feels good to know the Mizo film industry is coming up this fast.

At Warriors Of The Rainbow, you will see how clans perceive each other, and how people will do anything to protect their land and family. There are awesome fight scenes, and very moving scenes too that will guarantee a tear to fall down.

Do watch it when you can, you will not regret it. I’m ending this short post with a few more pictures of Warriors Of The Rainbow.

Pic source: Rotten Tomatoes

























10 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the review, will check it out. love the colours and atmosphere!

[off-topic] on a tangent, though i don't quite understand why cannibalism is considered so bad. surely after you've killed a person (whether by chem or gun) it shouldn't matter whether you bury them or eat them?

i know very little about africa and their headhunting/cannibalistic practices. here in nz though, the headhunting and cannibalism was ritualistic, and intertwined with how māori saw themselves and their place in the world. while i understand the western horror at such practices, it seems to me just a cultural thing. some kill and bury, some kill and eat. all good. [/off-topic]

but to each their own. :)

Aduhi Chawngthu said...

Wow, a movie review after a very long time. I loved The Flowers of War, and of course the dashing Christian Bale. The ending was sad and happy at the same time, and after watching the movie immediately googled "the rape of Nanking". Who says you can't learn from movies :)

Haven't heard of Warriors of the Rainbow, but will immediately search for pirated versions online :P, if my slow broadband will allow me a download.

Mizohican said...

@ feddabonn: I don't know. I guess eating another person just feels... so wrong? I mean I'm not saying this because of the influence of western culture telling us what is right and what is wrong... I mean, our ancestors too were never influenced by the civilized world for a long time, and yet, nobody practiced cannibalism because they probably found it weird even with their tribal instinct and all...

@ aduhi: Do watch Warriors of the Rainbow. After watching the movie, I feel like sharpening my chempui and go on a headhunting rampage again, y'know, just to vent out some frustration... Man, the movie made me realize, it's been such a longggg time since I last chopped off an enemy's head! I miss those good ol days :(

Alejendro said...

Ka en vek tawh. :) Flowers Of War khi my personal favorite :)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this post. I'm downloading them right now and look forward to watching them.

Mizohican said...

@ Alej: i tap nasat zia te kha an lo sawi a... lukham te i chum bur bur thah pahin an ti i en lai in...

@ ruolngulworld: Please do, you'll love them :)

Anonymous said...

download finished. sound check ok. popcorn ready. pillows in place. nice movies, lots of action. but no can understand because all in foreign language an no subtitles. reluctantly look for some other movie.... :(

blackestgore said...

Thanks for the info., I've added it to my list, the shots look great, kinda apocalypto-esque.
I liked Flowers of War, pretty gripping.
I love movies involving WW2 Japanese, like Shaolin (2011), IP Man 1, Letters from Iwo Jima etc.. Dem chinks were crazy..
Another stuff about Japanese movies I love is po..umm.. gore! Battlefield Royale, Machine Girl, Tokyo Gore Police etc.. Check 'em out, makes for a great Saturday evening viewing with friends.. :P

Anonymous said...

Just watched that move last night. Dude you've inspired me to write a review of my own...lolz. Great post! I like Seediq Bale, but unlike you, I never cried, ha ha... A lump up my throat, yes, but tears? No. Its frickin' awesome. But how can you leave out those amazing folk music/songs? They really enhance the impact of the film, you know.

S. Hauzel Sailo said...

Seems like an interesting movies. Would really like to watched it...