Guizi lai le (2000)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Director:

Wen Jiang

Writers:

Wen Jiang (screenplay)
Wen Jiang (story)

Release Date:

14 March 2001 (France)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town...

Plot Keywords:

Prisoner | Japanese | China | Satire | Decapitation

Awards:

6 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Wen Jiang	...	Ma Dasan
Yihong Jiang	...	Yu'er (as Hongbo Jiang)
Teruyuki Kagawa	...	Kosaburo Hanaya
Ding Yuan	...	Dong Hanchen
Zhijun Cong	...	Grandfather
Zi Xi	...	Liu Wang
Haibin Li	...	Me
Kenya Sawada	...	Inokichi Sakatsuka
Weidong Cai	...	Er Bozi
Lianmei Chen	...	Aunt
Yoshimoto Miyaji	...	Koji Nonomura
Qiang Chen	...	'One-Stroke' Liu
David Wu	...	Major Gao

Also Known As:

Devils on the Doorstep (International: English title)

Runtime:

139 min | France:162 min (Cannes Film Festival)

Country:

China

Language:

Mandarin | Japanese | English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

South Korea:15 | France:U | Netherlands:16

Company:

Asian Union Film & Entertainment

War conquers all

The movie is about the Japanese occupation of China during WWII. It is very humorous and shows the human side of people in the war, be it Japanese or Chinese. Because of that the movie was heavily criticized by the Chinese government who accuses it of being too sympathetic to the Japanese. They even object to one scene where a Chinese peasant feeds a Japanese prisoner because (as they put it) no self respecting Chinaman would do that when food was scarce.

While most war time movies seen in the West concentrate on war in Europe and Pacific, this one gives another perspective. Though at times hilarious and grotesque the movie ends in tragedy as the might of war taker over humanity again. It's a must see: 10/10