Scheduled for release over the past weekend, the Chinese action war film The Belief (澎湖海戰), a dramatic depiction of the 1683 Qing conquest of Taiwan, seemed on track to define a new and, for many, concerning genre — the “forced-unification blockbuster.” The setting is the outset of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), as Qing forces seek to defeat remnants of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) holding out in Taiwan. Taiwan outlets ETtoday and Newtalk both cited Fan Shih-ping (范世平), a professor of East Asian studies at National Taiwan Normal University, as saying the film has likely courted controversy on several fronts. Shi Lang’s attack on Taiwan was essentially a military conquest, not something the Taiwanese people actively welcomed, said the professor. That could spell trouble for a film that invested its box office hopes in stirring up patriotic sentiment over Taiwan.