Guizi lai le

There is no question that the Japanese occupation of mainland China during WWII was marked by unimaginable cruelty and actions so barbaric that any sane human being would shudder at the description of them. This is all obvious to anyone who has had an unbiased, detailed education of that dreadful time period. On the surface, Jiang Wen's film touches on these acts to illuminate what it must have been like for the Chinese to cope with the Japanese "devils". But a thorough viewing of the film reveals so many more questions not just about the Chinese and Japanese but about the universal relationship between war and humans. Wen directs this film in a peculiar way. He uses comedy that forces us to laugh at things that we shouldn't. You find yourself smirking or smiling in moments until you catch yourself and remember that the whole scene in which you were laughing at was where character's lives were at stake. Most people will read this and not see what is so masterful about this approach. What makes Wen's quirkiness work is that it illuminates the naivety of human beings while at the same time brings these characters to life, which in the end leaves us trembling with emotion. It is a film that transcends common conceptions about war. A masterpiece.

This film is a masterpiece. The first time I saw this film was in senior heigh's class when I was in China. And to those reviewers who know nothing about China, except the issue when the film first went public, this film is the representative work of Jiang Wen which is spoken highly by the Chinese audience. It never goes underground and now it is accessible everywhere on Chinese video website. One less thing to criticise us, what a pity.

As others have already stated, this is a marvelous work by Wen Jiang. The setting was beautiful and the cinematography was outstanding. Western audiences may be unfamiliar with the Sino-Japanese conflict but elements of the story transcend that. I will re-watch it carefully but, on first viewing I could not figure out who "me", the kidnapper, was. There is a possible clue however. "me" points a Mauser pistol at Ma Dasan in the opening scene. Mausers were "en vogue" with many Chinese warlords of that era. Was this a coincidence or a subtle hint? Was "me" therefore Chinese? Why would a fellow Chinese person saddle Ma Dasan and his village with such a disastrous assignment?

"guizi lai le" is the most improtant chinese film since 1988 when zhang yi mou's "hong gao liang" won the golden bear in berlin. it's a great film to prove the jiang wen's thinking of the whole anti-japanese war and the real chinese,gave us a new version of chinese.

After enjoying the excellent In the Heat of the Day, I really looked forward to watching this movie and had high expectation on it, and I certainly wasn't disappointed.

This movie is a tragi-comedy about the Japanese invasion of China, which of course is no laughing matter, but this movie is genuinely funny and never falls into the bad taste category because it shows you the brutality of war and how it affects the Chinese people (albeit from a different angle than one would expect).

The ending, which I am not going to give away, is excellent and I think it is the most courageous war movie ending I have ever seen. However, one thing about Jiang Wen's movies is that they are so technically interesting that it is difficult to see what his movie is about as a whole.

Anyway, I highly recommend this film.