Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Sad and Heartwarming Stories...酒肝袒卖无与慰安妇阿嫲的一日空姐记...元慰安婦エアホステスの一日..

No, this post is not about current affairs..it's about some sad stories which occured in the past. One from a movie, the other in real life.

Now, the movie is called' Papa, Can you hear me Sing?' which was a famous Taiwanese tearjerker film which came out in 1983 (the yr I was born).
This movie was one of the first movies from Taiwan to have substantial Minnan/Hokkien dialect dialogue in it as Hokkien dialect was banned or restricted severely since the 50s in Taiwan until 1987 when it was allowed on airwaves,tv, movies, and songs. The theme song has since become one of the most famous Taiwanese Hokkien songs of all time, and I finally managed to watch this movie on Youtube recently, (given that it was screened in the exact year I was born in!)and of course I cried..haha..its a pretty corny story with tragedy after tragedy but it was still sad nevertheless..full movie here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJw2O4ayBvs

Another tragedy is that of the real life 'comfort women',Asian occupied territories women taken by the Japanese during and before WW2 to become sex slaves for Japanese troops during the war. However, this time, it is a heartwarming story as it involves a Taiwanese comfort woman named 'Xiu Mei' (whom i met and spoke to during an organised NGO visit by 3 comfort women to Sydney in 2007! I could actually speak to her as I understood Taiwanese hokkien and she had a translator for Mandarin/English into Hokkien for her). It was always her wish to become a flight attendant later on in her life and NGOs helped her to become one for a day with professional make-up, a wig, as well as the well-known China Airlines uniform on the plane! How touching!
Newsclip here:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4JmIt3HeRo

A Heartwarming and Tear Jerker of a post ain't it?

6 comments:

Chris said...

So touching!

hcpen said...

Chris: Yeah, I know, the Ah Ma one is so touching!

Anonymous said...

I've always been curious about Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? I didn't know that it was a landmark Hokkien dialect film. Heck, I can only recognize Hokkien as "not-Mandarin, not-Cantonese, must be Taiwanese!"

I've read that in spite of the restrictions, there was a thriving Hokkien film industry in Taiwan up through the late 60s.

Anyway, I'll try to find this on DVD. I don't know if I can watch an entire movie on YouTube! ;p

hcpen said...

Duriandave: It was one of the 1st films with substantial Hokkien dialect and a local Taiwanese feel but definitely there was a thriving hokkien film industry in the 1940s,50s,and until the early 60s. I think the govt only severely implemented its hokkien restriction policy from the mid-late 60s onwards.

suituapui said...

I saw "Papa, can you hear me sing" when I was younger. Can't remember the story now...but I love all the songs in the movie by Sue Luer...or whichever way they spell the name!!!

hcpen said...

Suituapui: Yes, I like the song too!