The promotion for the film at the time of its release was China's "Sintler's List." This is obviously overrated. The "Children of Yellowstone" is far from comparable to "Hintler's List" in terms of its depth of inquiry into human nature and its artistic expression. However, "The Children of Yellowstone" still has its moving parts.
Before his death, the hero Ho Ke said to his beloved, "I'm lucky".
This is true. As a pacifist, after witnessing the most brutal wars and massacres, Hok can return to his own pacifist philosophy. It can only be said that he is very lucky.
"The Children of Yellowstone" has very clear pacifist tendencies. Not long at the beginning of the film, the Nanjing Massacre is positively described through Hooke's perspective. And it was this experience that shook Hooke's idea. Hoker later said he wondered if his family's past pacifism was correct and if there were some evils that had to be stopped by violence?
But in the process of taking care of the children, Hooke returned to pacifism. He tried to let the children grow up like normal children, let them be independent and self-reliant, without fear and hatred. So he tried his best to oppose the communist Jack's raising his child Shi Kai into a soldier.
Shi Kai is a typical war orphan. He watched the Japanese kill his own relatives, and he hid pictures of his family members with hatred in his heart.
Hogg and their refugees captured two Japanese scouts on their journey. Hooke shut them in the hut and left. Shi Kai returned and killed the two soldiers. He Ke found a group photo of the soldier and his family in the hands of a soldier. The composition was exactly the same as that of Shi Kai's family. He Ke showed the photo to Shi Kai, but Shi Kai tore it up.
In our traditional war movies, Shi Kai is the standard teenage hero, like Little Soldier Zhang Ga. "The Children of Yellowstone" takes Shi Kai as the object of redemption.
I'm a little unsure how to judge Hoek's pacifism. I actually agree that some evils must be stopped by violence. Yet I also agree that, far more often, unresolved hatred is something more terrifying. If I had a child, I'd rather he be "The Children of Yellowstone" than "Little Soldier Zhang Kar."
"The Children of Yellowstone" has some interesting details. When He Ke was detained by the Kuomintang army, the Kuomintang officers told him that for more than a hundred years, you colonists, missionaries, and invaders have come one by one. These children shed Chinese blood, they can only be our Chinese children, you cannot take them away.
In reality, some of the Yellowstone children are still alive. At the end of the movie there are several old people who recall Hok. An old man said that he was a perfect man with no flaws.
Also, there is one thing I am not sure about. At the beginning of the film, He Ke went to Nanjing with his colleagues. Two people in the car discuss the Japanese army. The dialogue and subtitles I hear are displayed slightly differently. Hoker said the Japanese were not barbarians either. His colleague said, from what I heard, they thought the Chinese were barbarians; the subtitles were, but they thought they were.
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