Awards :
- Won three awards at the Taipei Film Festival (2008): Taipei Million Grand Award, Best Audience Award, and Best Cinematography Award.
- Won the Grand Prize at the Asian Marine Film Festival (2008).
- Took home the Halekulani Golden Orchid Award for Best Narrative at the Hawaii International Film Festival (2008).
- It was nominated for 9 Golden Horse Awards (2008), including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Soundtrack.
- It took home the awards for Best Supporting Actor (馬如龍 Ma RuLong), Best Original Film Score (Fred Lu, Lo ChiYi), Best Original Film Song (國境之南 [Guo Jing Zhi Nan] [South of the Border]), Outstanding Taiwanese Film of the Year, and Outstanding Taiwanese Film-maker of the Year (魏德聖 Wei TeSheng).
Remarks : Cape No. 7 is currently the second highest-grossing film in Taiwan of all time, coming in second only to Titanic.
In the 1940s near the end of the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, an unnamed teacher (Kousuke Atari) dispatched to the southernmost town of Hengchun falls in love with a local girl with the Japanese name Kojima Tomoko (Rachel Liang). After the Surrender of Japan, the teacher is forced to return home as Taiwan was placed under the administrative control of the Republic of China. On his trip home, he pens seven love letters to express his regret for leaving Kojima Tomoko, who originally planned to elope with him to Japan.
More than 60 years after the teacher left Kojima Tomoko, Aga (Van Fan) is introduced as a struggling young Hengchun-native rock band singer who could not find success in Taipei. After returning to his hometown, Aga's step father (Ju-Lung Ma), the Town Council Representative, arranged a position for him as a postman, replacing the aging Old Mao (Johnny C.J. Lin), on leave after a motorcycle accident broke his leg. One day, Aga comes across an undeliverable piece of mail that was supposed to be returned to the sender; the daughter of the now deceased Japanese teacher has decided to mail the unsent love letters to Taiwan after discovering them. Aga unlawfully keeps and opens the package to discover its contents, but the old Japanese-style address Cape No. 7, Kōshun District, Takao Prefecture can no longer be found.
Meantime a local resort hotel inside nearby Kenting National Park is organizing a beach concert featuring Japanese pop singer Kousuke Atari, but Aga's step father makes use of his official position to insist that the opening band be composed of locals. Tomoko (Chie Tanaka), an over-the-hill Mandarin-speaking Japanese fashion model dispatched to Hengchun, is assigned the difficult task of managing this hastily assembled band, led by Aga along with six other locals of rather particular backgrounds. After a frustrating trial period, Aga and Tomoko unexpectedly begin a relationship. With some assistance from hotel maid Mingchu (Shino Lin), who is revealed to be Kojima Tomoko's granddaughter, Tomoko helps Aga find the rightful recipient of the seven love letters. Tomoko then tells Aga that she plans on returning to Japan after the concert because of a job offer. After returning the seven love letters, a heartbroken but determined Aga returns to the beach resort and performs a highly successful concert with his local band alongside Kousuke Atari, during which Tomoko read the seven love letters composed 60 years ago. |