ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Wei Te-sheng's two directorial productions, Cape No.7 and Seediq Bale and discusses how the notion of 'return' operates as a trope of immanence and contemplation. Since the 1990s, many institutional efforts have been made to re-characterise Taiwan's nationhood, including curricular reform to offer courses in Taiwanese vernaculars, revision of historiography to emphasise the centrality of the island, recognition of sovereignty of indigenous groups, and redefinition of Taiwanese literature. Having learned their trade as apprentices of healthy realism, senior filmmakers such as Li Hsing and Bai Jing-rui, as well as New Cinema auteurs such as Ke Yi-zheng, Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, all turned their attention to the past when the island faced dramatic economic and political transitions. In Seediq Bale, the term 'savage' has been placed in its trailer tagline to combat the inhumane weaponry and discriminatory administration of the 'civilised' imperialist Japanese.
