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The film is 2 hours 56 minutes long, a government-sponsored, action-packed, patriotism-filled drama that cost more to make than any Chinese film before it. It seems to be exactly what the Chinese public wanted.
“The Battle of Changjin Lake,” a blockbuster that depicts an unexpectedly defeat of the United States in the Korean War, breaks box office records since opening last week on the eve of the annual October holiday in China, known as Golden The Week.
As a barometer of Chinese politics and culture, it looks a lot like a film of the moment: aggrieved, provocative and chauvinistic, a sumptuously choreographed call to arms at a time of global crisis and increasingly strained relations with the world, especially the United States.
The bad guys are American soldiers and commanders, including a reasonable impersonation of General Douglas MacArthur. The heroes are the Chinese “volunteers” launched against what was then considered the most invincible army in the world.
The battle, better known in the United States as the Battle of Chosin Reservoir, drove the Americans and their allies from North Korea in the winter of 1950, paving the way for the stalemate that ended with a ceasefire three years later. It entered the tradition of the Communist Party as an unvarnished triumph in the childhood of the People’s Republic of China, although it came at a terrible cost to the Chinese people.
On his second day at the movies on Friday, October 1, he broke the single-day box office record in China, grossing over $ 60 million. As of Tuesday, it had grossed more than $ 360 million, according to Maoyan, who tracks ticket sales, making it one of the most successful Chinese films ever made.
“This is an extraordinary and perfect collusion between capital and political propaganda,” Sun Hongyun, associate professor at the Beijing Film Academy, said in an interview.
Depictions of the Korean War – known in China as the “War to Resist American Aggression and Help Korea” – have long been a staple of Communist Party propaganda. A flurry of them emerged last year, with mixed success, on the 70th anniversary of the start of the war and China’s intervention in October 1950 as North Korean forces were threatened with annihilation. .
In this case, “The Battle of Changjin Lake”, which cost $ 200 million, seems to have resonated more with the public than the usual agitprop. He did so despite mixed reviews, torturous execution time, and technical errors in military history, tapping into the nationalist sentiment that Chinese leader Xi Jinping nurtured.
Xi used the anniversary of last year’s war to declare that the Chinese people will never shy away from a confrontation against foreign aggression.
“The national sentiment displayed in the film echoes the growing public sentiment to protect national interests in the face of provocations, which has big implications for today’s Sino-American competition,” the Global Times said. official journal which is itself a barometer of the warmongering tendency of the country. views, said in one of the many articles defending the film.
The film also owes its popular success to the cast, which includes some of the country’s biggest stars.
Among them are Jackson Yee, the pop idol who featured in ‘Better Days’ Oscar nominee in 2019, and Wu Jing, the lead man whose role in a pair of action movies gave the name of. “wolf Warrior” to the recent mark of bold diplomacy. (“Wolf Warrior 2,” which grossed nearly $ 900 million when released in 2017, remains China’s top-grossing film.)
“The Battle of Changjin Lake” was one of several overtly patriotic-themed films approved for release over the holidays, apparently at the expense of Hollywood blockbusters still awaiting approval, including Marvel Studios’ “Black Widow” and “Space Jam: A by Warner Media New Legacy.
The Chinese film, slated for release in August, has been delayed as the government imposed new restrictions on cinemas during the Covid-19 outbreaks. The Chinese film industry, as well as those around the world, suffered greatly during the pandemic, but the film signaled a potential revival, even as pandemic restrictions still place capacity limits on theaters in many cities.
The film depicts one of the bloodiest battles of the Korean War, which began in June 1950 when communist North Korea invaded South Korea to unify the divided nation after World War II. China intervened just as the American-led forces fighting under United Nations mandate were on the verge of victory.
The battle lasted for 17 days in November and December 1950 after newly arrived forces from China surrounded American, British and South Korean troops in brutally cold mountainous terrain. The Chinese military forced them to retreat to Hungnam Port, setting the stage for a triumphant climax, with soldiers waving a sea of red flags in victory.
The war remains a sensitive topic, despite – or because of – its portrayal as a shameless victory for the newly formed People’s Republic of China.
Details of the huge Chinese losses have been withheld for years. According to the official death toll, cited by Xi last year, 197,000 Chinese soldiers have died, although historians largely agree that the number was much higher. Even now, the death of one of Mao Zedong’s sons, Mao Anying, long attributed to a reckless urge to cook fried rice, remains a thorny subject.
“The Battle of Changjin Lake” was carried out with the support and guidance of the government, highlighting the efforts that the authorities will make to shape popular culture.
Wang Jiequn, director of the Beijing Municipal Film Administration, which is part of the Communist Party’s propaganda office in Beijing, told a press conference last month that authorities “organized and planned” the production. with the directors of the film, Bona Film Group and Bayi Film. Studio. She called it “our gift to the 100th birthday party”, which was celebrated with great fanfare in July.
Laura Li, 31, watched the film with her father on Monday in a crowded theater in Shenzhen. She found the film trite but was surprised to see a lot of young people in the audience. Her dad, a war movie fan, cried during scenes showing Chinese soldiers freezing to death on the icy battlefield.
“Now we are seeing more and more domestic films capable of arousing the patriotism of the Chinese people,” said Ms. Li, who is a project manager at a technology company.
“I still prefer American films,” she added, “although it is getting harder and harder to see one.”
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