The movie becomes an unending depiction of the horrors that can occur after a rebellion - shootings, decapitations, ambushes, drownings, suicides, executions of the innocent, bombings from aircraft, poison mustard gas. So began a tale of death, destruction, and reprisal. The rebels knew they could not succeed and were doomed, but they believed that their actions would merit a glorious afterlife. Now, in part two, the movie goes on to describe the events that followed.

The depiction of the events leading up to the massacre is in part one of this epic. Led by a compelling tribal leader, the natives mounted a terrible rebellion that resulted in the massacre of a Japanese community, women and children not being spared. But many fierce natives remained unconverted and resentful. Some tribes were converted and remained loyal, and they fought the rebels. The Japanese, like the Spanish in the Philippines, attempted to impose its culture on the natives whom they considered 'savages' and in some cases they were successful in converting the people. The occupation was brutal, and the native population, which was distinct from the Chinese (the Han) who had migrated there, had much to grieve about. Historically, the events depicted in the film took place in 1930, well after the Japanese acquired Taiwan by treaty and started to colonize it and began exploiting its natural resources, especially its lumber. The story takes up after the first phase of the rebellion by the aborigines on Taiwan against the Japanese invaders. I saw part one of the two part movie which takes well over four hours, and was intrigued enough to watch part two.

Brave 2012 hevc