MIDORI NO ROUGOKU (緑の牢獄)│2K│Documentary│2021│Taiwan, Japan, France│101 mins
2022 DOK fest München “DOK.international” Competition｜2021 Kinema Junpo Best 10 Documentaries
2021 Taipei Film Festival, nomination for Best Documentary, Best Music, Best Sound Design of Taipei Film Awards, International New Talent Competition｜
2021 Osaka Asian Film Festival｜2022 DMZ Docs, Asian Competition｜2022 Taiwan International Documentary Film Festival
2022 Australian Taiwan Film Festival “Audience Award”｜Theatrical Released in Japan/ Taiwan in 2021
Logline:
Grandma Hashima is the last survivor of Taiwanese forced workers who were brought to Okinawa and into the “Green Jail”, during Japan’s colonization of Taiwan. The film is a tale of hidden memories and secrets that are essential to a necessary debate in today’s world.
Synopsis:
There remains only silence in the “Green Jail” in Iriomote Island, Okinawa, Japan. Before World War II, “Green Jail” was a large-scale mining village under Greater East Asia Imperialism which imprisoned thousands of miners, who were from Kyushu, Japanese colonies Taiwan and Korea and other places of Japan. Most of them died from malaria or were forced to work there. As for “Taiwanese miners”, the morphine injection was prevalent so that they could work nonstop day and night.
Grandma Hashima is the daughter of the head of colonial Taiwanese miners Yang Tien-fu, who experienced the coal mine days in Okinawa. She’s already 92 years old, living alone in an old shaggy wooden house where her family lived, near the “jail on the sea” with the tomb of her parents. Nearly no one visits her. What has happened in the coal mine? Grandma’s adoptive father, who recruited hundreds of Taiwanese miners to “Green Jail”, making them unable to get back to Taiwan and leave the jail… Is he an assaulter or a victim of Japanese Imperialism?
This film portrays the last years of Grandma Hashima’s life, with her memory of crime, pain, anger and the miserable history throughout 80 years.
Staff
Director, Producer: Huang Yin-Yu
Co-producers: Tetsujiro Yamagami, Annie Ohayon Dekel, Farid Rezkallah
Associate Producers: Johan Chang, Yvonne Fu, So Sugaya
Cinematographer: Nakatani Shungo
Music: Thomas Foguenne
Editors: Valérie Pico, Mon Cher Ho, Huang Yin-Yu
Sound Design & Mixing: Chou Chen, Li Chia-jung, Allen Kang (Seismic Sound Lab. Ltd.)
Color-grading: Michel Esquirol, Nakatani Shungo
Production: Moolin Films, Ltd. & Moolin Production, Co., Ltd.
Co-Production: Siglo, Ltd. (Japan), 24 images (France)
With the Support by:
National Culture and Arts Foundation of Taiwan, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, and more.
Pitched at
2015 “HEAD – Genève Postproduction Award” of “Pitching du Réel”, Visions du Réel｜2015 “Doc Station” of Berlinale Talents｜2019 “Doc in Progress” of Visions du Réel｜2019 “Rough Cut Presentation” of DMZ Industry｜2019 “WIP project” of Golden Horse Film Project Promotion｜2017 Docs Port Incheon｜2017 Tokyo Docs｜2014 CCDF（CNEX Chinese Doc Forum）
