Movie No. 93 (2013): DEVILS ON THE DOORSTEP
Devils on the Doorstep (2000)
Director: Wen Jiang
Cast: Wen Jiang, Yihong Jiang, Teruyuki Kagawa
In Chinese and Japanese, with English subtitles
The film is funny. The film is tragic.
During the Japanese occupation of China, in a remote mountain village, a mysterious intruder dumps two (sacked) prisoners into a peasant's home for (safe)keeping. The peasant is further instructed to interrogate the prisoners. One of the prisoners is a hot-headed Japanese soldier; the other a Chinese, who is an interpreter. Come the following New Year, the prisoners and the transcript of the interrogation shall be collected. The intruder threatens the peasant that something bad will happen to the village if he fails. The next scenes, as consequences of this opening scene, are really funny, particularly the interrogation. But the unexpected turn of events will result in a tragic ending, one that I didn't really expect.
Director: Wen Jiang
Cast: Wen Jiang, Yihong Jiang, Teruyuki Kagawa
In Chinese and Japanese, with English subtitles
The film is funny. The film is tragic.
During the Japanese occupation of China, in a remote mountain village, a mysterious intruder dumps two (sacked) prisoners into a peasant's home for (safe)keeping. The peasant is further instructed to interrogate the prisoners. One of the prisoners is a hot-headed Japanese soldier; the other a Chinese, who is an interpreter. Come the following New Year, the prisoners and the transcript of the interrogation shall be collected. The intruder threatens the peasant that something bad will happen to the village if he fails. The next scenes, as consequences of this opening scene, are really funny, particularly the interrogation. But the unexpected turn of events will result in a tragic ending, one that I didn't really expect.
The movie, in my opinion, has some degree of being original. The black-and-white cinematography and the sudden shift to color, in my opinion, is wonderful. Of course, it means something that is relevant to the narrative.
Rating: 4.0/4.0
Date seen: April 14, 2013
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