ABSTRACT
This essay explores how director Te-sheng Wei successfully uses the South as a trope for resistance in his feature-film debut Cape No. 7 and achieves a postcolonial cinematic landmark in Taiwan. Although released in August 2008 when the Taiwanese film industry was in its deepest recession, Cape No. 7 created unbelievable box office records to become the top-grossing Taiwanese-made film ever (“Box Office”). The film also won many awards in major film festivals such as the Golden Horse Awards, the Hawaii International Film Festival, and the Asian Film Awards (“Cape No. 7”). During its release, the film provoked heated scholarly as well as public debate about Taiwanese identity and history and created fervor in civil societies across Taiwan. Throughout the island, songs from the film were popular among old and young, male and female, and were passionately sung in Karaoke establishments, family gatherings, school and even preschool performances. All these achievements seem miraculous for a low-budget film produced by an obscure director and cast about relatively powerless people in the remote southernmost town of Taiwan, Hengchun. This essay argues that apart from successful commercial elements—a good story, wonderful music, and beautiful scenery—the main reason the film so struck a chord with the general public lies in its ability to express subaltern perspectives at a critical conjuncture in Taiwan’s postcolonial history.
