By Keen Zhang

Taiwan's biggest box office hit of 2008, "Cape No. 7", has just been approved by China's film authorities for mainland release on St. Valentine's Day.

Weng Li, spokesman for China Film Group told China.org.cn that "Cape No. 7" would premier on February 14. Weng said the film would not be dubbed and would be shown basically uncut, with its original Taiwan dialect, vocal tracks and subtitles, although some "foul language" would be edited out.

"It is a love story, so we have scheduled its release for St. Valentine's Day," said Weng. The release of "Cape No. 7" has been delayed for months. There had been rumors that the film would be banned from the mainland market. Some Hong Kong and Taiwan news organizations began to tout it as a "sensitive movie" set to test the warming relationship between China and Taiwan.

"Cape No. 7", written and directed by Wei Te-Sheng, is a tale of two love stories. One is about a struggling local rock star who falls for a public relations girl working for a Japanese pop star who plays a concert in a small coastal town in Taiwan. The other is about a Japanese man's love for a Taiwan girl during the Japanese colonial occupation of the island from 1895 to 1945.

Many are afraid that the sympathetic portrayal of Japanese characters, including from colonial times, may be offensive to some mainland people, given China and Japan's uneasy past relationship.

To view the film as a political statement would be misleading. It is rather, an artistic re-imagination of fresh and bygone love, depicted in delicate local colors that reflect Taiwan's history and the lives, identity and memory of its people. But it is unlikely that the film will entirely escape political comment since it was repeatedly mentioned when mainland and Taiwan envoys met in November, 2008. Chen Yunlin, the chairman of the Association for Relations across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS) was even treated to a screening of the film during his stay in Taiwan.

For your consideration Oscar poster: "Cape No.7" [File photo]

Spokesmen for the mainland's Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council have repeatedly rebuffed claims that the delayed opening of the film was due to official obstruction. "To say the mainland is planning to ban the film is groundless. Its release schedule on the mainland depends on film companies' arrangements and commercial and marketing considerations," one official said.

Sources close to China's film bureau said the delay in releasing the film was due to technical reasons. According to this version, China Film Group had been actively working on importing the film but the Taiwan distributor had not provided the required materials in time. One missing item was the simplified Chinese subtitles, necessary because of the many local dialects, as well as Japanese dialogue. China Film Group said they never had any intention of dubbing the film, which would have obliterated much of its Taiwan flavor.

"Cape No. 7" grossed over US$13.8 million to become the second-biggest earner in the island's movie history after "Titanic". It won 6 awards at the 2008 Golden Horse Awards. Director Wei Te-Sheng told the press in Taiwan that he was hoping for good box office returns on the mainland, but simply getting the film screened has made him happy. He had previously said he would make changes to the film if mainland requested them.

But the bad news is that the film is out of the race for an Oscar. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences yesterday announced nine films, including Israel's animated war film "Waltz with Bashir," that had made the short list for the 81st Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. "Cape No. 7" was not among them.

(China.org.cn January 14, 2008)