WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALLE is an ambitious production that is too long by 20 to 30 minutes in its international form.   You should avoid the 2 1/2  hour theatrical cut.   It is a production plagued by weather, production delays, and money problems.   It is an extraordinary story of a native people who fight against the Japanese who occupied Taiwan between 1895 and 1945.   The Seediq Balle were a group of warriors and some tribes wouldn’t join in the rebellion which led to some even fighting against each other and the Seediq Balle even sacrificing each other in the name of a belief of blood sacrifices that would send them over the rainbow bridge to the great hunting ground in the sky.

The film focuses around various characters including Chief Mouna Rudo who first fought against the Japanese only to surrender with the rest of the tribes and then taking part in another rebellion against the Japanese years later.   It is interesting to see belief systems and cultures clash in addition to seeing how Japanese culture affected the surrendered Seediq Balle and the other tribes.   You could pull parallels to this story to Braveheart, Last of the Mohicans, and Dances with Wolves.  The movie chronicles the little known Wushe Incident in addition to painting the history of a people more worried about their right to their hunting grounds instead or surviving as a people.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

THE EPIC JOURNEY OF THE WARRIORS is a series of over two hours in making-of featurettes which are too long and it would be better served if they edited down the journey of making the film to half that length.   Like movies, special features need editing and the editing in these featurettes is terrible.

Also included in the extras are a makeup and visual effects featurette, the theatrical trailer, the international trailer, and interviews with Director Wei Te-Sheng and Producer John Woo.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALLE is an epic which is 20 minutes too long and the blu-ray has extras that could have been edited down by an hour.   If you want to watch this epic, see the international version and not the shorter theatrical version.

This review is (c)8-29-2012 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com