I didn’t even know China had a film industry. It apparently has a big and growing one. There are problems, such as censorship, discussed at length here; but The Eight Hundred is a creditable war film depicting a real-life battle of the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1937 reminiscent of the heroic defense of Stalingrad which had a relatively modest budget (by Hollywood standards) of $80 million but took 10 years to make.
One of the sticky problems that held up release for a year is the battle was fought by Chinese Nationalist troops, and the Chinese flag shown in the film is the one now flying over Taiwan. The censors didn’t completely erase it, but made it less conspicuous. Some history also was rewritten. The Guardian article linked above contains a revealing comment by a Chinese official about the regime’s mindset:
“[T]he secretary general of the China Red Culture Research Association, a government-affiliated group, reportedly said of the film: ‘It is a reversal of history and misleads the audience. If left unchecked, it will certainly deprive the entire Communist party of its historical basis. Once the party’s leadership is lost, the Chinese nation is bound to fall into the deep, miserable abyss of colonised and semi-colonised countries.'”
Apparently Western colonial incursions into China are still very much in Chinese minds, which might help to also explain their proprietary attitude toward the South China Sea and their sensitivity to even a minimal U.S. military presence there.
The Eight Hundred, released on August 21, 2020, is already the second highest worldwide grossing film this year, behind only Bad Boys for Life, with box office receipts nearly double those of Tenet. The film, which has been compared to Dunkirk, is described by critics quoted in the Wikipedia article here as “a stunning canvas) but weak in character development. According to Wikipedia, Rotten Tomatoes gave it a rather good 85% rating.
The trailer below has English subtitles, so presumably the film does (or will have) too. The Guardian article says it’s being released in the U.K. and 60 countries, but doesn’t mention whether the U.S. is one of them, but don’t know what or when its availability here will be. Looks interesting, if you like the war movie genre.
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