Yapian zhanzheng (1997)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

Jin Xie

Writers:

Ann Hui (writer)
Zhu Sujin (writer)

Release Date:

18 October 1997 (South Korea)

Genre:

Drama | History | War

Plot:

Historical Drama starting in 1839 in Guangzhou where British merchants dealing with opium are to be...

Plot Keywords:

Opium | British | Chinese | England | British Empire

Awards:

6 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Guoan Bao	...	Lin Zexu
Debra Beaumont	...	Queen Victoria
Oliver Cotton
Nigel Davenport
Rob Freeman	...	Hill
Xiangting Ge	...	Yi Shan
Emma Griffiths Malin	...	Mary Denton
Garrick Hagon	...	Missionary
Shao Hsin	...	Shanzhi
Jiang Hua	...	Guan Tianpei
Philip Jackson	...	Captain White
Dominic Jephcott	...	M.P.
Liankun Lin	...	Qi Shan
Weixin Li	...	Deng Tingzhen
Sihung Lung	...	He Jingrong (as Xiong Lang)
Bob Peck	...	Denton
Li Shilong	...	Han Zhaoqing
Min Su	...	Daoguang
Simon Williams	...	Captain Charles Elliot
Jamie Wilson	...	Paul Artuard captin of Artillery
Gao Yuan	...	Rong'er

Also Known As:

The Opium War (USA)

Runtime:

153 min | Finland:106 min (TV version) | Spain:113 min | Germany:105 min

Country:

Japan | China

Language:

Mandarin | English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:12 | South Korea:All | Spain:T

Filming Locations:

China

Company:

Emei Film Studio

It would be extremely racist and foolish to label the film as...

...nationlistic anti-western propaganda.

This is a subject that BBC would not have guts to face, at least not in the near future. Before labeling this film as anti-western communist propaganda, one must first bravely face the ugly past of colonialism and the racism of today: Not only UK has yet to face acknowledge its crime in the colonial era openly and without any reservation, what taught and belived in UK, and as in many in the west, are still represented by obvious racism:

For example, many in the west still believe in the racist lie of Opium being used in China as medicine for thousands of years. The reality is that marijuana was used in China for thousand of years, not opium, which was introduced by British by force. Next time when you visit Washington, DC, make sure you visit the museum of DEA, where this part of the true history is honestly told. This is one area Brits has to learn from USA.

Another example of current day racism is that when describing the ugly past of colonial era, the British still calls the Opium War as Trade War, when everywhere else it is honestly called as Opium War, as it really was. This is the equivalent of a drug dealer forcing to sell drugs to people, and assaulted people when they refused, and then simply called the assault was a trade disagreement. Imagine what would happen if the drug dealer was white and the people were black in the current world, and the public reaction.

Enough said about British side, now about the Chinese side: unlike the previous nationalistic propaganda, which glorified the victimization by demonizing west, this film factually told the cause of the war in a sympathetic way, and for the first time, correctly criticized the corrupted Imperial Chinese political system and its corrupted officials, which lead to the backwardness of China.

The example would be the lavish living style of emperor and his court officials in comparison to the impoverished life style of ordinary Chinese citizens, which is the reflection of corrupted feudalistic system being defeated by much more advanced modern industrial capitalism. One must see the typical nationalistic propaganda made decades earlier and compare to this movie in order to appreciate the giant steps made here, which may not be something big for west, but it is something considerable for workers in the movie industry in a totalitarian regime.