Set in the Second Phase Offensive of the Korean War, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” tells an epic historical tale: 71 years ago, the People’s Volunteer Army (PVA) entered North Korea for battle. Under extreme freezing conditions, the troops on the Eastern Front pursued with fearless spirit and iron will, as they courageously fought the enemy at Lake Changjin (also known as Chosin Reservoir). The battle was a turning point in the Korean War and demonstrated the courage and resolve of the PVA. |
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Ratings: | IMDB: 5.0/10 | |
Released: | November 19, 2021 | |
Runtime: | 176 min | |
Genres: | Action Drama History | |
Countries: | China | |
Companies: | August 1st Film Studio Bona Film Group Huaxia Film Distribution China Film Co. Shanghai Film Group Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Alibaba Pictures Group | |
Cast: | Jing Wu Yihong Duan Jackson Yee | |
Crew: | Hark Tsui Kaige Chen Jianxin Huang Dante Lam Xiaolong Lan | |
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Great war flick from a different perspective
Films like this are called ‘zhuxuanlu’ in China, ‘main melody’, meaning something that whistles the Communist Party’s song. Three world renowned directors, Chen Kaige, Dante Lam and the legendary Tsui Hark, the highest budget ever for a Chinese Mainland movie and massive simultanious distribution nation-wide have created a blockbuster that succeeds cinematically and fails nevertheless. Unlike Guan Hu’s THE EIGHT HUNDRED that had to be hammered into patriotic shape by massive recutting after being finished, this was ready-made to fit the party line perfectly. Brave PVA soldiers vs the evil hordes of capitalism. Nope.
So this movie is a “state movie, towing the party line?”
I was just reading on the site “What’s on Weibo” — I have never visited this site and found it through surfing news — and found an article by Manya Koetse, entitled “The Unforgotten Victory:” “Why ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ “Is One of China’s Biggest Films Yet, NOV 4, 2021)” (Whew! The site asks that you properly acknowledge site/author when quoting :-))
The film: “…became the highest-grossing film anywhere in the world during the first weekend of October, beating the much-anticipated James Bond movie No Time to Die.” And “it became an unprecedented box office hit after it premiered on September 30, just one day before the celebration of the National Day of the People’s Republic of China.”
You might be interested in this article.
I read the article. Several articles, in fact and I saw the movie a few days after release. Since I speak passable Mandarin, being unsubbed was not much of a problem. The fact is really, whenever such a movie is due to release, the government minimizes the release movies that might be threatening their box office sales. There are mostly no competing (or foreign) blockbusters during the run of zhuxuanlu. That was also the reason for the roaring success of ‘1921’ earlier this year, the movie glorifying the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. There simply was nothing else to watch in the theaters. But what am I arguing here, you want to like this stuff because you lot hate Hollywood and liberals…
Who me? I mentioned no politics other than stumbling upon this movie and looking it up out of curiosity. You have just told me even more and it makes me interested.
I am a film freak and not just about the movies, but the historic and social settings that create films, how they represent cultures, etc. Hollywood sucks — it mainly produces mindless, artless crap. But I can’t dismiss entertainment for entertainment’s sake either. I just like my entertainment to run a little deeper, that’s just me. Also, Being a liberal doesn’t mean I don’t want to continue, all my life, to learn how this world works. I love arty Chinese cinema. I had no idea that the Communist Party was so influential in the production and distribution of film.
Congratulations on your Mandarin - wow - that’s impressive CJ!😎
Also, I wanted to add that I love WWI and WWII films. Rarely is there a film about Korea and it occurred to me, like a bit of a slap in the face, that I have never watched a war film from another country’s perspective that accounts for a history of fighting and winning against the US, where I live. An exception is German films about WWII, and they often have an apologetic undertone, or are about the suffering of the soldiers. They never glorify war.