The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021)
coffeeninja 0 points 2 years ago*.

Films like this are called ‘zhuxuanlu’ in China, ‘main melody’, meaning something that whistles the Communist Party’s song. Three world renowned directors, Chen Kaige, Dante Lam and the legendary Tsui Hark, the highest budget ever for a Chinese Mainland movie and massive simultanious distribution nation-wide have created a blockbuster that succeeds cinematically and fails nevertheless. Unlike Guan Hu’s THE EIGHT HUNDRED that had to be hammered into patriotic shape by massive recutting after being finished, this was ready-made to fit the party line perfectly. Brave PVA soldiers vs the evil hordes of capitalism. Nope.