Re: Yi jiu si er [Back to 1942]
Back to 1942
Thoroughly interesting film by the director of
Aftershock, Feng Xiaogang. But let's make this clear,
Back to 1942 far exceeds
Aftershock. It's sad, insightful, refreshing and honest all mixed up into around 2.5 hours. It follows the famine in Henan Province in 1942 just as the Japanese are invading, and it highlights the tough decisions that have to be made between feeding the army or feeding the starving refugees, plus all of the corruption at higher levels of Government which are taking their share of the grain.
I was never aware of this period in Chinese history, but now thanks to this film, I am. It's not all doom and gloom though, well, it is, but what I mean is there are other things to pay attention to as well - it's not simply two and a half hours of watching people eat tree bark! It really covers the military side well too, and the inter-community decisions of the refugees, but it mainly follows one man and his family; Master Fan, the wealthy landlord, and his gradual demise into obscurity, which leads to a very touching end. I was feeling teary.
The brutality of the Japanese are once again showcased here, although not on the scale or with the ferocity of
City of Life and Death. But it seems that violence in Chinese movies is acceptable so long as it's showing the Japanese in a bad light. Another one of the many hypocritical ideas of the Chinese. Adrien Brody is pretty good in this as the Pulitzer Prize winning Theodore White, but Tim Robbins is pretty terrible as the priest. The best performance is by Zhang Guoli (pictured, holding baby), a really inspiring performance by him, which is more amazing because he's mainly known for TV roles (and TV actors are usually terrible).
A-
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