Himalayan children, barely of school age, are sent to Buddhist monasteries to apprentice as young lamas. This film takes us along on the journey of three such children through daily rituals, games, a scripture contest, and festival preparations. On a winter holiday break, they return home and reunite with their families. Through the rare glimpse of this homecoming we see that—like any other children—they carry the collective hopes of their families and those of their teachers.
Struck by the difference between the political apathy of American youth and the exhilarating momentum of Taiwan’s social and political movements, the filmmaker navigates cultural, geographical and linguistic distances in search of wisdom and hope from her 100 year-old Taiwanese activist grandmother.
The filmmaker interviews her grandmother and people her knew her, just before her grandmother enters a full-care facility. The film explores the filmmaker’s discovery of her grandmother’s political sensibilities. As the film progresses, we hear history being told from various perspectives.
Kimbo Hu, called “the godfather of aboriginal folk songs,” is a pioneer of the folk music movement. When Taiwan’s democratization movement was at its height, he sang about the unfair treatment which the aboriginal peoples have suffered. Today, as the aboriginal movement seems to be at an end , Kimbo Hu has returned to his life as a singer, releasing his first album: In a Flash.
Baunay Watan enthusiastically traces his Atayal ancestors’ trail, with the help of the elders of Mepenox and some young cultural workers. They successfully revive an old convention, which had disappeared from daily life for 45 years — the ceremonies of the millet-growing cycle, and the wisdom that comes from people, nature, and local customs working together. They spare no efforts to collect relevant documents and research, interview tribal elders, and join in millet ceremonies held by the elders in the traditional way. Their devoted participation aims to restore the millet tradition as well as its honor. Although each step of the reconstruction is difficult, Watan believes that each footprint they left on the path will become a fertile ground for regeneration.
This is a story that has been forgotten by many of us, but not by Mr. Tomohide Kadowaki, President of Japan’s Akebono Association, who has devoted his life to taking care of the Takasago Volunteers, Taiwanese aboriginal men [were they from a specific tribe or village?] who were drafted into [or volunteered for? ] the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. [NOTE FROM TERI: This summary should have some explanation of who the Takasago Volunteers were, but I’m not familiar with the history.]He spent the savings of his lifetime and sold his properties for the survivors and the surviving families of the Takasago Volunteers. He also published several books that record their stories. Following the footsteps of Mr. Tomohide Kadowaki, we are overwhelmed by the love and the perseverance of this Japanese gentleman, and re-discover the stories of our own people , the Takasago Volunteers.