Guizi lai le

Although the movie has been released in the year 2000 and shot little before that, it does have the feeling of "older" movies. What do I mean by that? Pacing wise it takes the route classic war movies have taken before it and doesn't opt for the MTV Generation cuts/pace (I watched the nearly 3 hour version).

I called this a war movie, but don't get excited about fight scenes, it's more a drama! Saying more than that, might spoil something so I leave it at that! Just be aware of that fact, before you watch the movie! It's very well acted and you're unaware of where this will go! Which I think is great! Although it changes kind of "direction" near the end, it fits the movie (imo).

Do I feel late to the party on this one - how could I overlook this for the last 4 years? I was floored.

Watching "Devils on the Doorstep" reminded me of the first time I watched "seven samurai". Barring obvious comparisons such as being shot in black & white, using a combination of drama and comedy, and finishing it off with a startling ending, the movie's sense of time was fluid thanks to an excellent screenplay. Although the movie is lengthy, like many gems of Asian cinema, it was anything but a chore to watch it.

The plot is deceivingly simple, come alive thanks to Jiang's poetic directorial style. His characterization is succinct, but evocative, built up from his own personal memories. His vision of war has many ties to US cinema, with delirious, often hauntingly surreal, images of people trying to reconcile their own individual nature with that of being part of a collective.

I can see why Chinese censors would take offense to the film. China is painted as the victim that it is so often stereotyped as. However, with the country's continued objections against the Japanese glossing over wartime indiscretions, it could be seen as having nationalist overtones. I don't see the film as necessarily sympathetic to the Japanese: at the end of the movie, they are still the "devils". Additionally, when the plot is extrapolated outside of the film itself, the irony is of course that Japan was defeated by a powerful external force due to their brash political maneuvering.

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.

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.