{{Short description|2011 film directed by Midi Z}} {{Orphan|date=March 2024}} <!-- 如果您看得到完整的這行字，建議點選編輯框右上角的筆型圖示，切換為視覺化輸入法 --> <!-- 請從此行以下開始編輯，以上勿動 --> {{Infobox film | native_name = {{Infobox Chinese/Chinese|c=歸來的人|p=guilai de ren}} | director = Midi Z | writer = Midi Z | producer = {{Plainlist| * Midi Z * Patrick Mao Huang }} | starring = Wang Shin-Hong | cinematography = Midi Z | editing = {{Plainlist| * Lin Sheng-Wen * Midi Z }} | studio = {{Plainlist| * Seashore Image Productions * Flash Forward Entertainment * Montage Film }} | released = {{Film date|df=y|2011|10||Busan|2012|07|06|Taiwan|ref1=}} | runtime = 84 | country = Taiwan, Myanmar | language = Burmese, Yunnan Dialect (mixed with local dialect in Thailand hand and Myanmar)<ref>{{cite web|title=【雄影速記】《窮人。榴槤。麻藥。偷渡客》映後座談|url=http://allthememory.blogspot.com/2012/10/blog-post_25.html|access-date=2023-06-20}}</ref> }}
'''''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''.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=王 |first=萬睿 |date=2017-03-31 |title=No Country for Young Men DV Realism, Popular Songs and Midi Z's "Homecoming Trilogy" |journal=Chung Wai Literary Quarterly |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages='pp. 147–184'}}</ref> The film is packed with ''Poor Folk'' (2012) and ''Ice Poison'' (2014) by the distributor as the director's "Homecoming Trilogy."<ref>{{Cite web |title=歸鄉三部曲 (4DVD) |url=https://www.eslite.com/product/1004137162388219 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=誠品線上 |language=zh-Hant-TW}}</ref> 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).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2021 |title=Return to Burma (Gui lai di ren) |url=https://movingimage.us/event/return-to-burma-gui-lai-di-ren/ |access-date=31 October 2023 |website=Museum of the Moving Image}}</ref> 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.<ref name=":1" />
== Plot == 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 a 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 == 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 as 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.<ref>{{Cite web |last=前景娛樂有限公司 |date=2013-04-03 |title=【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 |url=http://flashforward.pixnet.net/blog/post/30541986 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=痞客邦 |language=zh-TW}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2013-05-13 |title=台风专访《穷人-榴莲-麻药-偷渡客》导演赵德胤 |url=http://ent.ifeng.com/a/20130513/25239642_0.shtml |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=鳳凰娛乐 |language=zh}}</ref>
In the movie, there is a scene where Shin-Hong brought two books of literature to a man he had not met in 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.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=王 |first=昀燕 |date=2013-04-23 |title=命運交織的當代緬甸 專訪「歸鄉二部曲」導演趙德胤 |url=http://www.funscreen.com.tw/headline.asp?H_No=457 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=Funscreen Weekly}}</ref>
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.<ref name=":1" />
== Music == {| class="wikitable" |+ !Song !Lyrics by !Composor |- |Street Corner (街角) |Aung Win |Zaw Pan |- |Mother Nature (大自然母親) | colspan="2" |Sai Ti Sai |- |Lover's Fairy Tale (愛人的童話) | colspan="2" |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.<ref name=":0" />
== Honors == {| class="wikitable" |+ !Year !Awards !Notes !Ref. |- | rowspan="4" |2011 |Vancouver International Film Festival |selection | rowspan="3" |<ref>{{Cite web |title=歸來的人 Return to Burma |url=https://www.goldenhorse.org.tw/film/programme/films/detail/388?r=ch |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=台北金馬影展 |language=zh-TW}}</ref> |- |Busan International Film Festival |selection |- |Golden Horse Film Festival |selection |- |International Film Festival Rotterdam |competition |<ref>{{Cite web |last=郭 |first=敏容 |date=2013-07-05 |title=2013鹿特丹影展觀影筆記 |url=https://funscreen.tfai.org.tw/article/5903 |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=Funscreen Weekly |language=zh-hant}}</ref> |- |2012 |Taipei Film Festival |nominated |<ref>{{Cite web |title=歷屆電影節 |url=https://www.taipeiff.taipei/history-search.aspx?year=2012&winnerunit=&keyword=%E6%AD%B8%E4%BE%86%E7%9A%84%E4%BA%BA |access-date=2023-06-19 |website=台北電影節 Taipei Film Festival}}</ref> |}
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:2010s Burmese-language films Category:Films shot in Myanmar Category:2011 Taiwanese films Category:2010s Burmese films Category:Taiwanese drama films Category:Burmese drama films Category:2011 drama films