Xuan ya zhi shang

Before this, I always thought "The Message" was the best one of this type. But Cliff Walkers impressed me with its story-telling.

Back in 1940s, four of the specially-trained spies were sent to commit a mission--To protect an informant and send him out so he can tell the truth about the government to the world. However, there are moles among the four. So it's harsh for the real agents to do the task.

Firstly, the acting is quite satisfying. Zhangyi played a senior spy in the movie, and his performance of being tortured was quite impressive.

When too much information is weaved/stuffed into such a visual spectacle in just two hours, then some details must be missed out during the (first-time) viewing process. I really enjoyed the strain and the thrill that the movie offered in Act 2 , but it took me some time to realize who's who and I had to carefully follow up on everybody's lines and subtext in Act 1 (even if I speak Mandarin). It also feels a bit abrupt when we see things are all settled in the end. Clarity is inevitably compromised when the narrative sometimes requires the audience to connect dots by themselves , in a blink of an eye.

How this director went from shooting, among other masterpieces, the most fabulously caustic critique of maoism with "To Live!" to erecting cinematic monuments to the glory of the Chinese Communist Party will go down as the most tragic waste in the history of cinema.

It should pain every cinephile out there, to see such genius being employed to such petty ends.

This kind of shameless brainwashing was equally pathetic when the Americans were doing it, but at least they didn't send their best directors to do it. Here Zhang Yimou is just kissing the ring, you can feel it, the guy is too brilliant to sincerely adhere to this hopelessly explicit propaganda.

Apart from that heavy aspect, objectively the movie isn't bad, although the action sometimes moves a bit too fast and the sentimentalism can get a tad too facile and corny.

"Zhang Yi leads the action in the first half, as his character is the traditional hero type who is decisive, vigilant and unflinchingly no-nonsense, an iron-wrought man who doesn't buckle under torture, so when Zhang crumples under his Achilles' heel (the attachment to his own offspring), it is Yu Hewei's Zhou, the surprising foe-to-friend undercover who takes up the gauntlet and resumes the endeavor. The secret mission takes a back seat, it is the "find the mole" game that propels the film to a satisfying if predictable finish in the homestretch. Great sacrifice is potently effectuated, mind game well played, earnest camaraderie emotively honored, the petticoat fighters are safe and waifs reunited with their parent, with the chief mission is accomplished en passant. Everything is well gauged to comply with China's ever-stringent censorship after Zhang Yimou's previous film ONE SECOND (2020), which also stars Zhang Yi and Liu Haocun, hits a bumpy road to get released."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.

Well, this movie is obviously another try of the CCP to brainwash its 1.4 billion subjects and at the same to whitewash and make the Chinese Communist Party was the sole entity that fought against the Japanese even before China officially declared war against the Japanese invasion in the Puppet Manchuria regime. But fair is fair, other than the formulaic and cliched ideological whitewash&brainwash purposes, Zhang, the director, the whole cast, the camera work, the editing as well as the soundtrack, the song at the end, all seamlessly performed a great work.

The only miscast was actress Haocun Liu, who played the role Lan, a young, maybe too young to be a Soviet Russian trained Chinese Communist member. Her role in this movie was a huge mix bag, because sometimes she looked just too young, too fragile, too vulnerable to play such role, yet at some critical moments, she also weirdly showed a rare toughness and maturity. Her purity and decency showed in this movie are exactly when Zhang ZiYi was just an unknown young girl auditioned for Zhang Yimou's My Father & Mother 1999. Could she enjoy a bounty future as Zhang Ziyi? Only time could tell.

After watched this movie, an afterthought inevitably came up. If those founding members of CCP were exactly liked what they have shown in each and every propaganda movies including this one, then I have to say, that the once passionate and patriotic first batch of the Chinese Communist vanguards were long gone. If they knew what their beloved Party has become since 1949, I think all of them would turn in their graves and cry their hearts out.