Review by Eva Cheng
Buddha Bless America
Starring Lin Cheng-sheng, Chiang Shu-na, Yang Tzong-hsien and Lee Hsin-tzong
Directed and written by Wu Nien-jen
Sydney Film Festival, June 6-20, State Theatre and Pitt Centre
Buddha Bless America, originally called Taiping Tianguo (Taiping Rebellion), is an impressive and amusing piece of political comedy that captures some key social contradictions of post-World War II Taiwan.
You won't get a lesson in recent Taiwanese history, but the story is fully submerged in these contradictions, mocking some of their unfortunate aspects — US neo-colonial domination and the Kuomintang's (KMT) subjugation of the Taiwanese people, against the backdrop of earlier Japanese colonial rule and continuing economic exploitation — with sprinklings of sarcasm and amusing elements which are more than skin deep.
It speaks for the powerless little people while seemingly built around their stupidity, ignorance, superstition, ideological enslavement, political naivety and even racism and sexism, revealed often in bizarre and amazing ways.
Standing out in this sea of rural ignorance is former school teacher Lin Wen-sheng (Lin Cheng-sheng), nicknamed "Brain" because of his formal education. The villagers look to him for leadership on the big things beyond their mundane daily routine. Lin's broader horizons also often set him apart, denying time understanding from his peers.
But "Brain" is a brain enslaved, full of illusions and blind faith in the superiority of American technology and reported medical achievements. The disgust he expresses for communism shows every sign of an uncritical adoption of the KMT's propaganda.
The story is set in the late '60s or early '70s, around the devastation to a rural community caused by the intrusive construction of an American military base. The villagers have opposed the project, but in vain. The ruling Mandarin-speaking mainlanders try to sell the offer to them, ironically on the basis of "national interest". Brain is picked by the KMT commander to help entice other villagers into accepting compensation. He does so in a community meeting with the commander, using arguments that the commander wouldn't want to hear, but are concealed by his Taiwanese interpreter.
But the villagers are fooled again and again by a US army interpreter, a typical comprador, shamelessly licking the boots of a foreign power at the expense of his own people. A US army commander apologises — however hypocritically — for having just raided the community hall into which the villagers were resettled for the base construction, but the interpreter misrepresents his words as a death threat. The army had come to investigate the rampant loss of their property, stolen by the villagers as a bit of a compensation for the devastation to their lives.
When Brain's brother seeks the army's help to sew on three fingers — amputated at work in a Japanese factory but preserved in a traditional way in the hope of finding one day an American magic cure — the interpreter humiliates and dismisses him as a beggar.
Despite their powerlessness, the villagers' unity and a strong sense of pride stands out. But theirs is a patriarchal order where women live an unquestioning, oppressed existence. A thread of the story concerns the adventure of a bunch of village boys, with not a single girl was in sight. I appreciated the surprising lack of artificial stereotypes of Chinese-ness, pathetically typical of movies catering for a western audience.
I thoroughly enjoyed Buddha Bless America, especially its subtle political depth and sly humour.