Devils on the Doorstep

2002
8.2| 2h19m| NA| en| More Info
Released: 18 December 2002 Released
Producted By: China Film Co-Production Corporation
Country: China
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?

Genre

Drama, War

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Director

Jiang Wen

Production Companies

China Film Co-Production Corporation

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Devils on the Doorstep Audience Reviews

Edison Witt The first must-see film of the year.
Ricardo Daly The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.
Paynbob It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.
Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.
ziggy-luo OK, it is obvious to Chinese people who "me" is: the Maoist, Communist resistance force: Communist Eighth Route Army (Ba Lu Jun).It is even more obvious "what" "me" is: an irresponsible, cowardly team of individuals who dumped the extremely dangerous load upon the innocent villagers, and bailed on them, never came back, and eventually led to the death of the entire village (who were so good-hearted that fed and bathed invader, save food for them..) There is so much to be said about this film, it is smartly made, has a message about every side involved in the conflict: Japanese Military, Chinese villagers, Chinese Communists, Chinese Nationalists... Messages that requires digesting to get..
lastliberal This Cannes award winning film by Wen Jiang, on of the directors on New York, I Love You, tells the story of the Japanese invasion of China during WWII. Jiang also stars in the film, that is both tragic and funny.The film is most definitely anti-war as it shows the basest forms of humanity. Despite knowing the war was over, a whole village was slaughters and burned.When one of the surviving villagers took revenge, he was punished by the military for being politically incorrect.It is no wonder the governments of both Japan and China would rather their people not see this film.It should be seen by all.
yanjcw up to now, this is my second favourest Chinese movie and only next to To Livegenerally, i don't call it a Chinse fighting-against-japan movie, which is always about a hero. it's about ordinary civilians struggle for survival under Japanese invasion.first of all, it's an idea to make this movie simply about a village and two war prisoners. when they came across a dilemma of take care of the prisoners, the village folks have to be very careful from being killed by either mysterious "me" or the japan invaders. but no matter how they tried, even to please the Japanese by singing, then got inevitably slaughtered.then instead of mandarin, we see local dialect is used in this movie. some words from the dialect really makes the movie interesting and the character alive. when i see this movie, i just feel they are not characters in a movie, but were ignorant/plain peasants living in northeast China. another wonderful element of language is the translation between japan and Chinese. it's really laughing when Hanaya tried to revile and annoy Ma Dashan & Yu'erfinally, it's a great success to shoot this film in black and white, by which the audience can be put in a real situation where the story happens. it's in color until the end when the Japanese surrender, perhaps it is to imply bright life is coming...one must-see for every average Chinese who won't want to forget the history of being invaded, especially when we see what the Japanese government does in the year of 60th Annivesary WWII
shaid "This review may contain a spoiler"The plot is simple. 2 war prisoners, one Japanese the other a Chinese translator, are dumped in the hand of a small village and asked to keep them alive until they would be collected in 5 days time, however the 5 days have passed and no one come to collect those 2 prisoners.So what do we do with those 2 ?Through this simple story the director,producer,writer and actor Wen Jiang manage to show the 2 societies and their different attitude towards things and manage to raise some question of good and bad,collaboration in war time.What is a collaborator? How do you survive a difficult situation, what price are you willing to pay and many more. The film is shot in black and white as a symbol to the fact that we tend to see the world in black and white.the acting is superb and I have only praises for the film. The film criticise also the Chinese government after the war and say though not in so many words that they were no better than the occupation.The film is a bit too long and as a western I probably lost some of the nuances but nevertheless it is still a good and powerful film,not to be missed.

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