The Taiwanese nationalism behind “Lucy” (露西)
Since the first time I saw the movie trailer of “Lucy”, the emotion of recognizing so many Taiwanese landscapes (mostly from the city of Taipei) in that two-minute video, made me want to watch the movie as soon as it arrived to the cinemas.
I am not Taiwanese, I am Mexican —very—, but after living here for three years I have developed lots of love, respect and admiration for the people living in this country, same characteristics that I could perceive from the way Luc Besson (director of Lucy) narrated his big-hit story.
Now, this is not a critic of the movie. In short, all I can humbly say about it is that to me, the plot seems to be very original, contemporary and the insight can be related to most cultures.
But what I am writing about today is more about the heart-to-heart conversations I had with the many friends I found in the island: their fears, passions, hates and, of course, their proud of being taiwanese are intertwined and displayed in “Lucy” in a very classy way that, I am sure, spoke directly to those Taiwanese fellows who already saw the movie.
I know that no matter how classy can be an intention for display Taiwan as a country —against the Chinese desire to claim it as its own—, the movie won’t make it to the Mainland due to the following three key points, which to me represent the way Luc Besson tried to spoke to the world about Taiwan within a secondary story that he included while shooting “Lucy”.
1.Taiwan as a country.
The movie starts with many Taiwanese flags waving in the air.
My memory will not forget the time I went to Beijing as a journalist back in 2008 for the Olympic Games and saw many times in the street people being stopped by the police whenever they were carrying any kind of flags with them.
“They are looking for rebels from Taiwan and Tibet”, said my guide in Beijing, Maggie, a young Chinese girl that speaks english with a very thick British accent.
That night I tried to google Taiwan and Tibet from the computer in the hostel I was staying. She was right. The “No results” message came one after the other probably after the content was filtered by the Golden Shield. That week, the police show in the hostel for a “regular inspection” and they spent most of time checking to those using the computers in that hostel.
2. The quiet resentfulness against South Korea.
The bad guys in the movie: South Koreans… all of them eliminated
Most of my male friends (straight friends, gay friends, do not care much about this), have told me many times how much they dislike South Koreans.
Reading history I realize that Taiwan and South Korea had very good diplomatic relations until 1992 when Shouth Korea recognized the People’s Republic of China as the only China stopping their direct relations with Taiwan. This was the first thought that came to my head whenever my Taiwanese friends would mention the topic.
Actually, the resentfulness comes more for the “dirty soccer players” that so many times have defeated the Taiwanese team in every regional cup.
Do not worry, my friends, the enemy has been eliminated in the most violent way.
3. “Real” traditional Chinese characters everywhere
Being filmed in Taiwan, it was more than obvious to notice the different writing in some of the characters. Well, Chinese from China and Chinese from Taiwan are a bit different written-wise. In China the language had an evolution to simplify the characters’ writing while in Taiwan, the thought is more conservative and they keep the original writing as a way to respect their ancestors. This is where the Traditional and the Simplified concepts for Chinese come from.
While watching the movie, you find them not only anywhere but also in huge sizes like the scene when Lucy is chained to a wall while sited on a chair.
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At the end, all I can recommend its to watch the movie. I am sure you will find more Taiwanese references hidden in the whole story.
“Lucy” its already in the cinemas and, due to the good numbers in the box office, might stay for longer that anyone could expected.
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Emmanuel is a freelancer journalist who writes about his experiences in Taiwan in both English and Spanish. He also collaborates with Blink Ent., by writing short film’s scripts and TV Sketches and develops other personal writing projects. You can find more about his work in the following links.
https://www.facebook.com/EmmanuelBlinkEnt
