How Long Is the Road Filming Locations

Director Tang Shiang-chu first read about the Taiwanese veterans twenty years ago in the Ren-Jian Magazine, realizing that there were other people suffering the same fate as his father which a war took them away from their homes; and it wasn't after the cross-strait opened up forty years later that the remaining soldier were giving a chance to return home. In the Dulan tribe of Taitung where the sea and the mountains meet, the director met an Amis youth, Siki Sufin, a wood sculptor. He learned that there were a group of youngsters that vanished when KMT took over Taiwan; they were brought far away to China to fight in a war that had no purpose. The director began his search from Dulan with Siki interviewing the remaining Taiwanese veterans, focused mainly on the Amis aborigines. During the search in Dulan tribe of the remaining Taiwanese veterans at south of Taitung, Siki petitioned the elders to erect a sculpture at the coast of Dulan to remember the fathers and uncles that were killed on the battlefield and unable to return home. Director and Siki then arrived in China to search for the Amis veterans that stayed behind in China; these veterans chose to stay behind due to political changes back home and living habits. Naking of Jiangsu Province is the first stop in the search of Taiwanese veterans, then to Xuzhou, an important strategic location during the war; then moving on to Beijing. Citamih can be seen in the Ren-Jian Magazine that the director kept for twenty years, unlike the other old Amis veterans that stayed in China for the last forty years, Citamih is still fluent in his aboriginal language. He used the techniques of Pinyin to record the stories of Amis aborigines in writing and completed "Reference of the Amis Language in Taiwan." Citmaih smiled and expressed that himself is a tribe, and will not forget that he's born an Amis. The last stop of the journey, director and Siki arrived at Chenguanzhuang in Henan Province; this is also where Huaihai Campaign, one of the three main battle grounds, took place; this is also where 70th corp, which consisted the most Taiwanese soldiers, were annihilated. Siki brought rice wines and beetle nuts to respects those who were killed on the battlefields. "We're here today, so others can know about the paths you have walked on.the tears and blood you have shed." Siki said. The "Song of the elders of the Dulan tribe" resonated sorrowfully by Siki, echoed through out the farmlands of Chenguanzhuang and drifted across the ocean and back to Dulan, Taitung. The wooden sculpture to remember the Taiwanese veterans is completed, erect at the coast of Dulan, looking out to the horizon as the sun rises.