The thing about this movie is that it's LONG, and it gets to things in a roundabout way, so it's hard to sit through. But the subject is indeed really important once you place the movie in its historical context, and that's really the only way you could truly appreciate the movie.

For me, just starting to learn about Taiwan history, the movie just felt like a historical movie. For my mom who grew up under KMT martial law, the movie means a lot more, especially since she remembered watching it in theatres back in 1989.