Empire of War - Der letzte Widerstand

It hurts. It really hurts. I watched my people suffer, I watched familiar faces suffer multiple blows, I watched this land suffer.

Many things not only happened in the past, but in different forms now. Many pain others really will never know, they may be cynical, perhaps shed a drop of crocodile tears, who can really understand? Have not experienced the suffering of others, do not condescending criticism.

Civilization can only develop in the heyday, the dark years to live as the only hope. When I realized that I was a part of history, I lost the ability to stand aloof and detached.

A grain of dust of The Times, falling on the ordinary people are thousands of pounds of stone. It is not so serious, do not see, surrounded by fear will not believe. This movie is about the past, but it is never just the past. Many old ideas will not be changed, and happiness will not really come.

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.

Feng Xioagang can be considered China's - possibly Asia's - most substantial film maker. His output is increasingly imposing and his box office clout means that the content of his work must come under intense official scrutiny. That made the IF I WERE THE ONE movies quite amazing as an expression of the notion that to be rich is glorious.

BACK TO 1942 is clearly a tent pole movie for the Chinese cinema and then carries a double load. It is an intense, long, demanding account of the 1942 Hunan famine and refugee exodus, made more terrible by the parallel war with the Japanese and also a revision of history with Chiang Kai Shek now shown as both calculating and remote, as well as caring and authoritative but only a support player in the story of the land lord and serf reduced to destitution on their awful journey.

Intriguingly, Theodore White writer of sixties Wolper Documentaries and "The Mountain Road" shows up effectively in the person of Adrian Brody, as a character.

Master crafted, some of the staging is exceptional. The bombing raids are great set pieces and the film manages to keep disaster chic in hand, even if it's so grim.

Essential for the serious movie goer, a strain on the casual entertainment seeker.

There are many stories that can be told all over the world that probably are not on your radar. This is one of them. Even if you know the facts (the numbers in that case), seeing that playing in front of your eyes is something completely different. It's devastating watching events unfolding especially when it's clear that some things might have been avoidable.

With some American star power (Brody and Robbins in this case in smaller roles), the movie depicts war and the cruelties to the common folk. So you won't be able to see much fighting (though there are still quite a lot of war scenes), but the effects it has on civilians. A difficult movie, not only because of the running time, but a very well made one. Even if you're not that much interested in History, this is able to grab you and hold your breath/attention until the end

A tamer version of my review in desensitized words:

Good film, could've been a great film.

A rather controlled and somber depiction of a dark chapter in modern history, subtly echoing another tragedy that happened 16 years later. Surprisingly un-judgmental and un-sentimental for a historical film recreating despair and lowest possible form of human existence.

Feng presents the multiple layers of clues and facts that lead to the ultimate tolls almost as-matter-of-factly, leaving the audience putting together the puzzles and drawing their own conclusions, which is a rather clever way of avoiding censorship and engaging the audience.

Could have been A LOT grittier and more affecting. The acting is powerful in this film. However for a film depicting a major famine that claimed over 3 million lives in recent history, not much huger is shown as visuals in the film, most of the lingering hunger is talked about/acted out (as opposed to being displayed visually) which reduces the general affecting power of the film.

Xu Fan and Zhang Guo-Li are amazing in this film with their acting. Xu gives her most powerhouse performance yet, portraying the tough bottom- feeder hillbilly b*tch who would attempt anything/everything in defending her and her family's rights to live. However for a country woman who's been starving for over 100 days and more than willing to sell her bottom half for a couple of crackers, what's with her double- chin? (think Jennifer Lawrence's face in The Hunger Game – she can act all she wants but I'm sorry, girlfriend is just NOT that hungry) What TF happens to her makeup artist team and special visual effects people?!

Adrien Brody is effectively engaging as a very eager T.H. White who's desperately trying to expose the truth, whether driven by his journalist instincts, Pulitzer, or a genuine sympathy for the poor and depraved. However don't even get me to start with Tim Robbins - why is he even in the film??? The couple of scenes he's in are cringe-inducing. Even if you edit them out altogether it would not affect the story's flow whatsoever.