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Strawman (Taiwan Version) DVD Region All

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Strawman (Taiwan Version)

Technical Information

Product Title: Strawman (Taiwan Version) 稻草人 (台灣版) 稻草人 (台湾版) Strawman (Taiwan Version) Strawman (Taiwan Version)
Artist Name(s): Zhang Chun Fang | ZHANG BO ZHOU | Wen Ying | Zhuo Sheng Li | Wang Tong 張純芳 | 張柏舟 | 文英 | 卓勝利 | 王童 张纯芳 | ZHANG BO ZHOU | 文英 | 卓胜利 | 王童 Zhang Chun Fang | ＺＨＡＮＧ　ＢＯ　ＺＨＯＵ | Wen Ying | Zhuo Sheng Li | Wang Tong Zhang Chun Fang | ZHANG BO ZHOU | Wen Ying | Zhuo Sheng Li | Wang Tong
Release Date: 2004-12-15
Language: Mandarin
Subtitles: Traditional Chinese
Country of Origin: Hong Kong
Picture Format: NTSC What is it?
Disc Format(s): DVD
Region Code: All Region What is it?
Duration: 94 (mins)
Publisher: Central Motion Picture (TW)
Package Weight: 110 (g)
Shipment Unit: 1 What is it?
YesAsia Catalog No.: 1003937633

Product Information


* Screen Format : 4:3 (Full Screen)
* Sound Mix : Dolby Digital
* DVD Type : DVD-5
* Extras : N/A

本片榮獲六十七年金馬獎︰
- 最佳劇情片
- 最佳導演
- 最佳原著劇本獎
三十三屆亞太影展︰
- 最佳劇情片
- 最佳男配角
- 參加休士頓、夏威夷影展

導演︰王童

　　這是一部描寫一群純樸善良的百姓，生活在一個荒謬的時空中所引發的一連串喜趣。故事的背景是1940年代，兩代佃農的陳姓兄弟在他們田裡撿到一個美製未爆炸彈，兩人準備將它送去給日軍邀功，在運送過程中引發不少笑料，最後炸彈在日軍的喝斥下，投進海中，誰料炸彈意外引爆，死魚浮出海面，兩人滿載海魚愉悅的返家。

　　這部影片歷經兩年完成，對農村生活的統治者與被統治者有深刻描繪，尤其濃郁的人情刻劃，超脫台語片裡常有的嘻笑怒罵的低級趣味，呈現出日據時代台灣庶民生活的悲歌。


製片人︰林登飛
編劇︰王小棣, 宋紘
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Customer Review of "Strawman (Taiwan Version)"

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Average Customer Rating for this Edition: Customer Review Rated Bad 9 - 9 out of 10 (1)

Graham
See all my reviews

December 11, 2005
Classic from Taiwan - funny and moving Customer Review Rated Bad 9 - 9 out of 10
Strawman is a Taiwanese film set during the Second World War. At that time, Taiwan had been a Japanese colony for almost fifty years. Taiwanese men of fighting age had been recruited (or pressed) into the Japanese army, and as the Pacific War went the allies’ way, Taiwan also became subject to bombing (albeit not as severely as Japan itself). In ‘Strawman’, this geopolitical situation is mediated through the lives of two brothers in the countryside, their family, and their village. The ‘Strawman’ of the title, an ineffective scarecrow, witnesses these changes in village life that the war brings.

***Minor spoilers ahead***

The two brothers, the main actors of the film, avoided the military draft due to eye problems provoked by their mother with this aim in mind. But even then, the family did not escape tragedy, for their sister become crazy after her husband was killed in action. Surrounded by a brood of children (one of whom is named ‘Cowdung’), they attempt to feed themselves and their families, a task not helped by occasional requisitioning by Japanese overlords and collaborators.

During the course of the film, an elder brother returns to the village with his wife and two children. He has been quite successful in business in Japan, and intends to negotiate the sale of the fields he owns to a Japanese firm for use in sugar production. The contrast between these brothers and their families is skillfully shown, particularly as the poor local children are made to wait while for the leftovers from the guests’ meal.

In the near vicinity there is also a bridge that is a target for American bombs, which leads to the main story in the second half of the film: what to do with an unexploded bomb? Since scrap metal was becoming a precious commodity for the war effort, the brothers decide to take it to the Japanese for a reward. The journey they make with the bomb, and with a local official in tow, is quite a humorous one, leading to a conclusion which is ultimately satisfying, though also amusing in a bittersweet way.

***End of minor spoilers***

To simply call this film ‘realistic’ would be a little misleading. While reflecting genuine historical situations, it does so in a manner reminiscent of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ ‘magic realism’. The performances of the actors, old and young, greatly contribute to this effect. What better mode to show the effects of a destructive war on a village so directly affected by it, yet so alien to it in spirit, than through a lens that is both compassionate, yet has such an accurate eye for irony and the sheer ridiculous?

It is easy to see why this film was acclaimed when released in 1987, and I am eager to watch the two other films in the director Wang Tung’s ‘Banana Trilogy’: Banana Paradise, and The Hill of No Return.

As for the DVD itself, this is a regular DVD5 with burnt-in Chinese subtitles, dialogue in Mandarin and Japanese and no extras.
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