It should be said that this is a typical film that narrates Chinese stories from a Western perspective, so it is natural that there are many common misunderstandings about China and the Chinese people in the film. But some plot arrangements, at least from the perspective of Chinese audiences, are really inexplicable. For example, in the New Fourth Army there is a grass-roots cadre who graduated from West Point Military Academy and speaks fluent English. Logically speaking, it is still possible to have such an elite-level talent in the huge New Fourth Army, but it is not logical that such an elite is actually just a grass-roots cadre of the New Fourth Army (a regiment level if they die). This is well-founded. In addition to leading a team of men and horses to carry out blasting at the beginning, the cadre has almost always been single-handedly in subsequent operations, and even personally responsible for escorting a group of orphans who escaped. I really don't know if this is to show that the New Fourth Army has great talents and little use, or that the elites in the New Fourth Army are gone. On this point, maybe I'm a little on the line. But another thing I don't quite understand is that at that time, China was in chaos, and the popularity of education was not high. Can you speak fluent English without exception?
There are also scenes that feel unreasonable or even out of tune. For example, Fa Ge blew up a broken building in the enemy-occupied area, saying that it was a color for the Japanese army to see, and when he detonated, he said "I love this part" to He Ke with the satisfaction of a child firing a cannon. I don't understand, the occupied Nanjing city was destroyed by the devils to the ground, so why don't you go underground to kill a few more devils, what's the use of running here to blow up a broken building? In another example, He Ke took back some crop seeds from Boss Wang, but later he saw nothing in the field except the lush sunflowers. The scenery is good, but the problem is that no matter how beautiful the sunflowers are, they cannot be used as food. Also, the student named "Qing" has always been docile and eager to learn, but in the end he hanged himself for no reason when everyone moved in a collective way, which makes people feel incredible. Boss Wang sacrificed his life to save He Ke and the children and felt weird and unreasonable no matter how he thought about it. It is even more absurd and bizarre that the high-ranking cadre's children were crushed to death by a mule cart to save everyone from the Japanese army's murderous hands. The passion scene between Hok and the female doctor feels passionate for the sake of passion, without any foreshadowing and development. It is more like a typical means of attracting attention in commercial films, and is out of tune with the literary tone of the film itself. All in all, I don't know if these plots are all from the original books, or if they are based on real events, but at least from a Chinese perspective, they are puzzling.
As for errors in other historical details (for example, anyone with a little knowledge of history knows that Nanjing's common English name was Nanking at that time, and all the foreigners in the film pronounced it as Nanjing), in view of Westerners' perception of China The limited understanding of history, let alone mention it.
In fact, the beginning of the film feels good. He Ke sneaked into the occupied Nanjing and filmed the murder of civilians by the Japanese army. The truth, blood and shock of the scene are not inferior to that of "Schindler's List". The actor who plays He Ke is here. The performance was also brilliant, and I was impressed by the look of consternation and grief on his face as he witnessed the carnage. This kind of film has a very strong beginning. If the director can take advantage of the situation to focus on how Hok escaped from the enemy-occupied territory and try to make the truth public, the story structure of the film may be much better, and the realism and tragedy will be stronger. . Unfortunately, here comes the "anti-climax" mentioned earlier. Next, after He Ke was rescued, not only did he not think about how to tell the truth about Nanjing to the world, but he became a village teacher with peace of mind, until he became a hero like Bethune and died in a foreign land. As a result, there was a shock at the beginning, and the follow-up plot was protracted and anticlimactic. Of course, maybe the plot of the film is just faithful to the original book, so my wishful expectation of the subsequent plot development of the film should be just to amuse myself.
View more about The Children of Huang Shi reviews
