UPDATE: In addition to the 3 minute ''KANO'' movie trailer, the movie's theme songwill be unveiled for the first time at a countdown party in Tainan. WHAT WILL BE THE THEME SONG AND WHO WAS THE COMPOSER AND LYRICIST? If you know, leave message here!
Previews for the upcoming Taiwanese baseball film "Kano" will be a
staple of 2014 New Year celebrations around Taiwan next week.
"Kano" director Ma Chih-hsiang, whose real Aboriginal name is
Umin Boya, is excited, too.
Set when Taiwan was still under harsh Japanese Imperial rule as a Japanese colony (1895-1945) in 1931, "Kano" which was the school nickname of KA-gi NO-rin gakko, -- the
Japanese-language abbreviation for Chiayi (then pronounced "Kagi")
Agriculture and Forestry Boys High School -- tells the true underdog
story of the school's baseball team that traveled by ship to Japan that summer
to play in the Koshien tournament, a renowned high school baseball
tournament.
The film portrays the rigorous training undertaken by the team, which
was composed of Taiwanese athletes of both Han
Chinese and Aboriginal origins and 3 boys from Japanese families living in Taiwan at the time, and how they advanced against the odds
to the finals of the tournament.
The director said he hopes the film will help bring back memories of
the "glorious era" of Taiwanese baseball of the 1930s.
But viewers will also learn of the real nature of life under the Japanese imperialists who treated Taiwanese people like second class citizens and even like dogs sometimes, calling them "ni-ah" for ''HEY YOU!'' when policeman spoke to the locals. It was not all a pretty romantic picture, as the movie will show. In fact, life under the Japanese was no picnic, but that's for another movie to show. THIS MOVIE called KANO will be a sweet romantic baseball flick so enjoy it for what it is.
