Luta pela Liberdade

The plot twists and turns in this movie of the Communists vs the puppet regime in Manchukuo. Set in December 1934, the story revolves around a true event.

The sets are lovingly and authentically created to reproduce the romance of the period. Attention to detail is evident even to ensuring the cinema calendar is correct. I had to watch and rewatch the movie so many times to link the clues and details.

Zhang's masterly cinematography would have certainly won him the Best Director Oscar had Jane Campion's Power of the Dog not been just as lush and powerful.

Excellent, really Excellent movie. This will be a hard act to follow.

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.

China's official entry to 2022's Oscars is a very good atmospheric historical spy thriller. Although its story is not my cup of tea, I enjoyed it and was involved in it all the time. The story unfolds interestingly and storytelling is beautiful. Cinematography, production design and costume design are all nice. Some scenes are really thrilling and intense.

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.

"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.