I have a hard time believing this is a 1987 movie if it wasn't for Belle. The quality of the movie is very good. Perhaps this is the reason why Bell took over the filming of Thirteen Hairpins many years later. I knew Bell because of "Tear the Sun", so I thought it was that one when I first saw the title.
The movie is good overall, but I only gave it 3 stars. Because from this child's absurd perspective, we can understand how the West views Japan's war of aggression against China. From the beginning of being irrelevant to worshiping Japanese force to being oppressed and enslaved. But the life, death and suffering of the Chinese people have nothing to do with them, and Westerners don't care at all. And always imagining foreigners as noble is just a wrong impression after the brainwashing of Hollywood and Western culture in the past two decades. While the kid was hiding in the swamp with the Japanese officer, the campers didn't care about his life, but instead made wild bets. The significance of war films is to reproduce cruelty, and no one can survive alone in war.
Children's love for the Zero fighter and their admiration for the Japanese Air Force eventually turned into cheers for the U.S. Air Force, showing that the world will always be the world of the strong.
Westerners are just afraid of power, it doesn't matter whether Japanese or Chinese. So looking at this 87-year-old film today, I can understand the world better.
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