Kano (film)

Kano
Taiwan theatrical poster of Kano
Directed byUmin Boya
Written byWei Te-sheng
Chen Jia-wei
Produced byWei Te-sheng
Jimmy Huang
StarringMasatoshi Nagase
Tsao Yu-ning
Hsing-Chen Yeh
Togo Igawa
Maki Sakai
Takao Osawa
Tenma Shibuya
Aoki Ken
Rose Yu
CinematographyChin Ting-chang
Music byNaoki Satō
Production
company
Release date
  • 27 February 2014 (2014-02-27)
Running time
180 minutes
CountryTaiwan
LanguagesTaiwanese Hokkien
Japanese
Hakka language
Formosan
BudgetNT250 million

Kano is a 2014 Taiwanese baseball period film directed by Umin Boya and produced by Jimmy Huang and Wei Te-sheng. It is based on a true story depicting the multiracial Kano baseball team from Japanese-era Taiwan, overcoming extreme odds to represent the island in the 1931 Japanese High School Baseball Championship at Koshien Stadium (located in Nishinomiya, Hyōgo Prefecture). Performing beyond all expectations, the underdog team advanced to the championship game in the tournament.[1][2]

The film stars Masatoshi Nagase as Hyotaro Kondo, who coaches an underdog multi-ethnic high school team comprising Taiwanese aborigines, Han Taiwanese and Japanese players. The team's star pitcher, Meisho "Akira" Go, is played by Tsao Yu-ning, who won a Best Supporting Actor award at the 2014 Taipei Film Festival for his performance in the film.

The film also won Audience Awards from the Golden Horse Film Festival (where it also won a FIPRESCI Prize), the Taipei Film Festival and the Osaka Asian Film Festival. Kano is the 6th highest grossing domestic Taiwanese film of all time.

  1. ^ Kano. Yahoo Taiwan. Retrieved 30 January 2014.
  2. ^ Japanese actors happy to appear in Taiwan baseball film 'Kano'