Jo Kelly
I had no idea of what was going on in China during WWII until I saw this film. This movie enlighten me on the dark facts of starvation and just how far people will go to survive. Although it is in Chinese and subtitled in English, please don't let that keep you from seeing this film. Out of the few movies that really makes you feel, that makes you rethink everything you know about anything, Back to 1942 defiantly ranks top ten in my opinion. I'm not going to give anything away, but the end of this movie left my jaw hanging open and my mind scrambling to understand all that had happen in the two hours and thirty minutes of pure devastation. If you are looking for a movie that shows the sad reality of this world, I urge you to see this film.
ryanlee0513
I chosen the film is 'Back to 1942' that is an epic film about a horrible famine of Henan province in China. Feng Xiaogang is the director of the film, and the film was released on Thursday, November 29th, 2012. Feng Xiaogang who is a famous director in China, he graduated from The National Academy of Chinese Theatre Arts, and is good at directing the comedy film. However, 'Back to 1942' is a breakthrough of him again. In this film, there are not only many famous Chinese such as Zhang Guoli, Chen Daoming, Xu Fan and Zhang Hanyu, but also have two American actors namely Tim Robbins and Adrien Brody. Obviously, 'Back to 1942' is expected to have influence at the international marketplace, not just for domestic marketplace.'Back to 1942' tells the story about more than 30 million of Henan's people began a 1012 km fled in order to survive from hunger, which lasted 106 days and approximately 3 millions people died. A terrible drought and locusts lead to this horrible famine, and the war between Japan and China makes it worse. The film' plot structure is unique. There are three main story lines, the first one is that civilians fled from famine, the second one is the behavior of the Chiang Kai- shek's government, and the third one is Theodore H. White who is an American journalist reported the situation for Time magazine and his rescue operations. These three clues bonded together by tragic fate of millions of victims that made the film express a distinctive dramatic tension. The color of the film is gray, it can accurate convey the emotion of the film which is people suffering in famine and death. Indeed, the film shows that people have changed during unprecedented hunger. Specifically, sexual, physical, and even personal freedom becomes tools to exchange for food, and the traditional Confucian and even basic family ethics is abandoned, such as the husband sale his wife, father peddle their children and so forth. There are several plots that shock me. The first, rich property owner Fan and his family also are on the road in order to survive. However, during this period time, his daughter-in-law give birth to a child. The puerperal is very weak and no milk for child, because she did not eat anything for few days. Fan deiced to cook a cat for a soup, which is company her daughter all the way, in order to supplement nutrition for his daughter-in-law, so that the grandchildren can survive. But, his daughter Xing Xing love her cat so much, she often feeds her cat using her own food. When Fan want to explain to his daughter about cooking her cat, his daughter ask him that want to eat the cat soup. There is no any sadness in her eyes. People have been changed by extreme hunger, and the life instinct defeat all emotions. The second, during the famine time, every thing could happen, for example, a few liters of millet can buy a person. Xing Xing which is Fan's daughter, want to exchange self for millet, but Fan does not allow. She explain to her father that she cannot stand hunger, if sold her, her family not only can get some millet, but also she can live. When Xing Xing was selected, there even is a smile appearing on Fan's face that is unimaginable in the present age. Therefore, the value of millet is over the value of gold or a person in the famine time. The third, Fan takes a train with his grandson into the Shaanxi province, and others of his family's members went away or dead. Fan told to his grandson, "There are only us". However, he found that his grandson was already dead. He feels helpless and hopelessness. Hence, he made a decision that came back to Henan and he already does not think about how to live, he just want to die closer to home. These plot express the despair of losing all family members that give me a big shock, because he already lose the life instinct when he lose his family and he even does not affair the death anymore. To sum up, I think 'Back to 1942' is a great movie, and it almost reflects the damage caused by the famine. It also makes me to think about what is the most important things when people face the disaster.
kevin yu
Before I went to watch this movie, I thought it might be another attempt by another Chinese director to win western market. I thought it might be another hero, a weird martial arts movie that surprisingly pleased western market but not me, a Chinese who grew up with martial arts culture.How wrong I was, this movie was all about Chinese: government corruption, Chinese fighting Chinese, and bureaucratism, the movie showed them all, and more importantly, real. This movie does not only have the stunning visuals all the big budget Hollywood movies have, but it also has an amazing way of telling history. The movie showed the how cruel a war could be, by telling story of a rich family in Henan province at 1942, when there were a drought and a war threatening. The overall tone was serious, but you will be laughing at some little humors now and then.I would definitely suggest this movie to anyone who is interested in Chinese culture. For it displayed a real china, unpleasant, even sad, but its real.
