This fact is pretty obvious if you watch a lot of Chinese – or South East Asian – movies and a lot of US – or Western – movies. This has much to do with spoken and written language: Chinese and English are a long way apart, and to think and reason in one of those languages is a very different process from doing so in the other. They don’t feel like Americans so much as like a Chinese idea of how Americans must think. (Although perhaps due to Tsui’s involvement, the few American characters shown feel a lot more convincing than those in many Chinese films, even if they are somewhat hampered by scripted dialogue that feels as if it were written in Chinese then translated into English. The film follows Chinese troops and their military engagements but makes scant attempt to show the situation from the opposing side. Of the other two, Kaige is known to Western audiences from such art house fare as Farewell My Concubine (1993), while Lam is, like Tsui, a stalwart of Hong Kong action cinema ( The Stool Pigeon, 2010 Operation Mekong, 2016). Tsui ( Zu Warriors, 1983 Once Upon A Time In China, 1991) at least has some working knowledge of America, having studied film in Texas. The big difference between them and Chinese global box office phenomenon The Battle At Lake Changjin is that although the latter film deals with a conflict in which the Chinese are pitted against the Americans, all three directors are Chinese.

Both of those Western (and, as it happens, Twentieth Century Fox) movies presented both sides of the conflict by hiring directors from the different countries concerned. Probably the best known are The Longest Day (Ken Annakin, Andrew Marton, Bernard Wicki, 1962) about the World War Two Allied invasion of Normandy and Tora! Tora! Tora! (Richard Fleischer, Toshio Matsuda, Kinji Fukasaku, 1970) about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. There is a history of war films with a cast of thousands being directed by several (usually three) directors in an attempt to portray campaigns with huge military logistics on the screen.

15 – 176mĬhinese war movie which has barnstormed the global box office does exactly what it says on the tin – out in cinemas on Friday, November 19th

Directors – Chen Kaige, Dante Lam, Tsui Hark – 2021 – China – Cert.

Chang jin hu for apple download