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Devils on the Doorstep 鬼子来了 英语影评
Wen Jiang has been appearing in Chinese films since 1986 and is probably most familiar from his role opposite Gong Li in Red Sorghum. Since 1994, however, he's also written and directed three feature films, of which Devils On The Doorstep is the second. Although it was a success for Jiang at Cannes, the Chinese Film Bureau was miffed he'd submitted it without their approval and banned it in China and suspended him from making films for two years. Which is ironic after a film so steeped in irony.
Devils On The Doorstep is set in a poor northern China village during the winter of 1944-1945. The area has been occupied by the Japanese since the late 1930s, and the villagers have grown used to the foreign "devils", who take only a certain amount of their harvests and assert their presence with a ubiquitous marching band, repeatedly playing the same tune. Jiang plays the central character, Ma Dasan, who one night is surprised by a gun-toting stranger. He dumps two captive Japanese, bound in sacks, with Dasan, and says he'll be back to collect them in a few days. Should they escape, he warns Dasan, there will be repercussions for the whole village.
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