MovieChat Forums > Formosa Betrayed (2010) Discussion > Whoever made this movie must have hated ...

Whoever made this movie must have hated Taiwan

posted 14 years ago by wpdleo
50 replies | jump to latest

This movie is crap and not accurate at all. First of all, Taiwan did not look like that in 1983, 1963 maybe, but 1983 Taiwan was not like that. Not even Vietnam looked like that in 1983. Second, the scene showed military policemen entering a restaurant asking who is a communist spy and randomly arresting some poor old man eating breakfast; this could never happen. I am not saying that this never happened before because I am sure a lot of people had been wrongly accused of being communists. I said that this could never happen is because military policemen can not enter civilian properties while in uniform. Also military policeman are always in dress uniform unlike the what the movie portrayed.

Granted that Taiwan was under state of martial law in 1983, people are actually free to go anywhere and do whatever they want to do. The only noticeable difference is that serious crimes are punishable under military jurisdiction. That is, if you rob a store, you could get the death penalty. And punishment is usually severe and swift. Not a good thing for criminals but I am sure the victims preferred this swift justice over the snail-paced legal system now.

This movie is filled with inaccurate depictions of Taiwan and it's people. It is filled with hate and contempt. Whoever made this movie must have hated Taiwan.

[–] Mattbasterson 13 years ago

My wife was LIVING in Taiwan in '83, and says this is nonsense. Never in her memory can she recall such a presence of soldiers in the streets like this, and the restaurant scene is something more likely to happen in communist China, not Taiwan.
She lived there from '73 to '91.

[–] hikai77 10 years ago

Two things, the book the movie is based on was published in 1965. So the dates might not be the most accurate in the depiction, although there seem to be other posters here who have differing views, it seems like the kind of stuff depicted in the movie is actually accurate in its depiction of incidences occurring in Taiwan at some point in its history, not only Communist China.

[–] melskaya 13 years ago

I knew nothing about the struggle in Taiwan other than what I read on CNN.com. This movie may have inaccuracies but it made me go out and research and learn about what really happened.

[–] melskaya 13 years ago

Did the Party tell you to post that?