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Return to Burma

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Return to Burma
Chinese name
Chinese歸來的人
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinguilai de ren
Directed byMidi Z
Written byMidi Z
Produced by
  • Midi Z
  • Patrick Mao Huang
StarringWang Shin-Hong
CinematographyMidi Z
Edited by
  • Lin Sheng-Wen
  • Midi Z
Production
companies
  • Seashore Image Productions
  • Flash Forward Entertainment
  • Montage Film
Release date
  • 6 July 2012 (2012-07-06) (Taiwan)
Running time
84
CountriesTaiwan, Myanmar
LanguagesBurmese, Yunnan Dialect (mixed with local dialect in Thailand hand and Myanmar)[1]

Return to Burma is the first feature movie directed by Taiwanese director Midi Z, who was born in Myanmar. It continues the theme of his short movie The Man From Hometown.[2] The film is packed with Poor Folk (2012) and Ice Poison (2014) by the distributor as the director’s "Homecoming Trilogy."[3] The other two films of the trilogy depict the lives of illegal immigrants of Chinese ethnicity on the border of Myanmar.

Return to Burma is the first feature film in history to be shot and completed in Myanmar (Burma).[4] It was selected for official competition for the New Currents Award at the 2011 Busan International Film Festival and was nominated the following year for the Tiger Award in the official competition section at the 2012 Rotterdam International Film Festival. Return to Burma altogether has been nominated for more than twenty awards.[5]

Plot

[edit]

After working in Taiwan as a migrant construction worker, Shin-Hong decided to return to his hometown with his friend Ah-rong at Lashio, Myanmar for the Chinese New Year. A few days before the departure, Ah-rong died in a work accident, falling from a building at the construction site. Shin-Hong brought Ah-rong's ashes and condolence money from their compatriot workers back to their hometown in Myanmar.

Seen as a "returnee with honor," believed to have made a fortune in Taiwan, Shin-Hong was even invited to deliver a speech at a school’s graduation ceremony, where he told a story to convey the message that “there is no free lunch.” He ended his speech with "soar high and fly far," a common blessing in Myanmar that encapsulates the longing of its people to strive and succeed in foreign lands. But Shin-Hong himself was already considering not to go back to Taiwan.

Shin-Hong's long absence from his hometown created a subtle estrangement between him and the people there. During his stay he paid visits to the families of Ah-rong’s and other workers. He also carefully checked the investment needed to start different kinds of business, while his hometown acquaintances still yearned to venture abroad for work with good pay just as his younger brother and a friend of his were heading to Malaysia for a job. After seeing his brother off, Shin-Hong was seen chopping wood on a piece of land with another young man.

Production

[edit]

Director Midi Z made Return to Burma in a realistic style close to documentary from the perspective of a Myanmar Chinese. The film is mostly based on his own experiences. He takes the audience into the struggles and displacements of Myanmar society, presenting the changing Myanmar and the real conditions and life situations of its people. Growing up in Myanmar, Midi Z does not shy away from the issue of "poverty" in Myanmar. He believes that as an artist, especially from the position of a director, it is the fundamental duty to confront these poverty or evil aspects. Obtaining licenses for filming in Myanmar is not easy, so Midi Z takes matters into his own hands and personally operates the camera to capture the shots for this film. The handheld camera's instability and the race against time create a unique atmosphere in his films.[6]

Midi Z admitted that the inspiration for this film came from his own emotional experience when he returned to his hometown after ten years of absence. Through his personal insights, the film also captures the collective spirit of Myanmar during the transitional period of opening up and democratization, earning Midi Z the recognition as the successor to the tradition of realistic storytelling in Taiwanese cinema, as praised by programmers at the Vancouver International Film Festival.[7]

In the movie, there is a scene where Shin-Hong brought two books of literature to a man he had met for 12 years: Rabindranath Tagore's Selected Poems of Tagore and Gao Xingjian’s One Man’s Bible. The man is Midi Z’s real classmate in junior middle school, who was very talented in writing. The man became a teacher, had a wife and a child, and lived an ordinary life. He had no leisure to write poems after the birth of his child. To make a living in Myanmar left him no room for art. In an interview Midi Z expresses his intention to identify what art is. He believes that the works of great authors are often born out of struggles or pain, as the blurb for One Man’s Bible read aloud by the teacher in the film.[5]

The character Wang Hing-Hong’s name is actually the actor’s real name. He is also the executive producer of this film Wang Fu-Ang. He actually had no interest in acting in the film. But Myanmar was too dangerous at the time of the film’s production, he could not find any actor who would risk his life, so he took the role.[5]

Music

[edit]
Song Lyrics by Composor
Street Corner (街角) Aung Win Zaw Pan
Mother Nature (大自然母親) Sai Ti Sai
Lover’s Fairy Tale (愛人的童話) A-Luan

Through their performances of popular songs, young Myanmar Chinese show their frustrations with their social identity, their desire for love, and their utopian projections for future life. In the film, Ah-hong and most other young men had no romantic relationship due to poverty. The song "Street Corner" and "Lover's Fairy Tale" together express the aspirations of the young people towards love.[2]

Honors

[edit]
Year Awards Notes Ref.
2011 Vancouver International Film Festival selection [8]
Busan International Film Festival selection
Golden Horse Film Festival selection
International Film Festival Rotterdam competition [9]
2012 Taipei Film Festival nominated [10]

References

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  1. ^ "【雄影速記】《窮人。榴槤。麻藥。偷渡客》映後座談". Retrieved 2023-06-20.
  2. ^ a b 王, 萬睿 (2017-03-31). "No Country for Young Men DV Realism, Popular Songs and Midi Z's "Homecoming Trilogy"". 中外文學. 46 (1): 'pp. 147–184'.
  3. ^ "歸鄉三部曲 (4DVD)". 誠品線上 (in Chinese). Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  4. ^ "Return to Burma (Gui lai di ren)". Museum of the Moving Image. 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
  5. ^ a b c 王, 昀燕 (2013-04-23). "命運交織的當代緬甸 專訪「歸鄉二部曲」導演趙德胤". 放映週報. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  6. ^ 前景娛樂有限公司 (2013-04-03). "【新聞】侯導弟子-台灣新銳導演趙德胤 深入險地貼身偷拍 記錄緬甸解除報禁前歷史時光". 痞客邦 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  7. ^ "台风专访《穷人-榴莲-麻药-偷渡客》导演赵德胤". 鳳凰娛乐 (in Chinese). 2013-05-13. Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  8. ^ "歸來的人 Return to Burma". 台北金馬影展 (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  9. ^ 郭, 敏容 (2013-07-05). "2013鹿特丹影展觀影筆記". 放映週報 (in Traditional Chinese). Retrieved 2023-06-19.
  10. ^ "歷屆電影節". 台北電影節 Taipei Film Festival. Retrieved 2023-06-19.