Like so many of the great black comedies set against the grim backdrop of war — Billy Wilder's STALAG 17, Robert Altman's M*A*S*H, Emir Kusturica's UNDERGROUND — Jiang Wen's scathing satire is rooted in an inhuman scenario: Japan's brutal occupation of China during the 1930s and '40s. The year is 1945, and for the past eight years, Japanese troops have been marching up and down the dusty switchbacks of the tiny northern Chinese village of Rack-Armour Terrace, routinely humiliating villagers like Ma Dasan (Jiang) and forcing them to subsist on near-starvation rations. Late one cold winter night, Dasan is summoned to his door by a loud knock. An unseen figure...
Released:
2000
Rated:
NR
Length:
139 mins