Contents:
The film begins with a hunt by a mountain river in Taiwan. Two Bunun men are hunting a boar, but they are attacked by a group led by young Mona Rudao of Seediq people. Mona Rudao invades the territory, kills one of them and takes away the boar.
In 1895, Treaty of Shimonoseki is signed between China and Japan, and Taiwan is ceded to Japan. Japanese invasion of Taiwan ends with Japan defeating Han Chinese resistance. Japanese military officials see the natives as obstacle to the resources of Taiwan, and Mona Rudao and his father, Rudao Luhe, see Japanese as invaders. Mona Rudao and Rudao Luhe attack Japanese soldiers and feud with Temu Walis, a Seediq young man from Toda group. The Japanese collaborate with a group of Bunun to get Mona Rudao's men drunk and ambush them when they are asleep. After battles, eventually Mona Rudao's village Mahebu is under the control of the Japanese.
Since then, some 30 years have passed. Mona Rudao's village is forced to burry the heads of the killed enemies they have collected. Men are subject to low-wage harsh labor and kept from traditional animal and human hunting; whereas women work in houses of the Japanese and give up the traditional weaving work. Above all, they are forbidden to tattoo their faces. The tattoo is believed to be the requirement for Seediq people to "go to the other side through a bridge of rainbow" after death. There are also young people who adopt Japanese names, education and life style and attempt to work and live among Japanese.
In late autumn of 1930, the tribe of Mona Rudao holds a wedding for a young couple. Mona Rudao goes hunting for the wedding and quarrels for hunting ground with Temu Walis, who is hunting with Japanese policeman Kojima Genji and his son. On the wedding, Yohsimura, a newly appointed and nervous Japanese policeman, inspects the village. Mona Rudao's first son, Tado Mona, offers to share his homebrewed beer with Yoshimura, but Yoshimura considers the beer dirty and starts a fight with Tado Mona and his brother Baso Mona. The fight is stopped, but Yoshimura fears for his life and threatens to punish the whole village. Young men see the punishment unacceptable and urge Mona Rudao to start war with the Japanese. Mona Rudao tells them that it is impossible to win. But Mona Rudao also sees the war necessary and decides to fight.
In a few days Mona Rudao collaborates the neighboring villages. They schedule to attack the Japanese on October 27, when Japanese will attend a game (in memory of Prince Kitashirakawa Yoshihisa) and gather on the schoolyard of the Wushe Village. The women, including Mona Rudao's first daughter, Mahung Mona, know the men are planning for a war and are sad.
Dakis Nomin, a young man who adopted Japanese name Hanaoka and became a police, notices that Mona Rudao is preparing for war. He comes to a fall and tries to persuade Mona Rudao not to start the war, instead Mona Rudao persuades him to collaborate. After Dakis Nomin leaves, Mona Rudao sings with the ghost of Rudao Luhe and determines to start the war.
On October 27 the attack takes place as scheduled. Men, women and children are killed. Takayama Hatsuko, a woman who adopts Japanese name and wears Japanese cloths, survives by hiding in a storage. Seediq people attack police station and take the guns. One Japanese police escapes and tells the outside about the attack. The film ends with Mona Rudao sitting on the schoolyard full of bodies.
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