I wonder what the japanese think about this film. - Guizi lai le (2001) Discussion

[–] championofcathay 16 years ago

They'd say "Under the glorious Imperial Army rule, China was a happy place. They had flowering meadows and rainbow skies, and rivers made of chocolate, where the children danced and laughed and played with gumdrop smiles..."

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[–] expressive_child 16 years ago

I think the Japs must accept it as it is, I mean regardless of how times have changed and people moving on, history is unalterable and so the Japs themselves too might appreciate this film, knowing how great it is regardless of how it portrays their war crimes. So if any Japs would say they despise this film because of the way their race is depicted, then they damn sure need a history lesson!

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[–] LordofHalo 15 years ago

This is according to wikipedia:

Devils on the Doorstep was commercially released in Japan on 27 April 2002, further delaying a possible lift of ban on the film in China. All major newspapers in Japan gave the film mostly positive reviews. The liberal leaning Asahi Shimbun said the film "illustrates and examines the weakness of human nature". The Mainichi Shimbun called the film Jiang's "overarching question on human nature". The conservative Yomiuri Shimbun also complimented Jiang, Kagawa Teruyuki and Kenya Sawada, saying their acting was "colorful" and "believable". Inevitably, however, some reviewers voiced displeasure after viewing the film, saying that it "further estranges the Sino-Japanese friendship that was seriously damaged in the past war".

Still, I don't think most Japanese deny the past warcrimes, but many of their younger generation are poorly informed due to Japanese history texts tend to skim over their WWII history. The most rightist extremists are generally ignored by the population.

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[–] Kawada_Kira (7269) 7 years ago

"Still, I don't think most Japanese deny the past warcrimes, but many of their younger generation are poorly informed due to Japanese history texts tend to skim over their WWII history. The most rightist extremists are generally ignored by the population."

The most rightist extremists form the core center of power in Japan today. The Abe administration is bursting with them, and they take every opportunity to propagate revisionist history glorifying the Japanese Empire and downplaying its crimes. Of course this person wrote this post 8 years ago (and I guess will never see this response, but whatever, others will), but even at that time, Ishihara Shintaro, an outright fascist and major instigator of the current rise of the far-right in Japan and rebirth of Japanese militarism, had been governor of Tokyo for a decade. He was the second-longest-serving governor of Tokyo in history. Hard to say that Japanese people ignore the far right when they keep reelecting them to major positions of power.

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[–] ak-xie 15 years ago

According to the Director Jiang Wen, the Japanese actors had trouble understanding and performing but then accepted it. It could be a learning process for a lot Japanese who doesn't know much of the history or got fooled by their right-wing activists.

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[–] ladoga 13 years ago

Anyone who likes good movies will probably like it, regardless of their nationality.

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[–] 13 years ago

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