97. The Battle At Lake Changjin II; movie review

 

THE BATTLE AT LAKE CHANGJIN II

Cert 15

149 mins

BBFC advice: Contains strong bloody violence

Gosh, this is interesting given the reporting of the current Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Clearly, there was no 24-hour-a-day news coverage of the Korean war of 1950 in which Chinese and American forces fought against each other.

But more than 70 years later, the Chinese Communist Party has supported the huge-budget two parter The Battle At Lake Changjin to coincide with its centenary celebration.

Consequently, the angle of one of the war's bloodiest episodes is completely different to the one we would usually see in the West.

Here, the Chinese are the good guys and the Americans are the intruders who they literally want to push out of their territory and into the sea

Directed by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, and Dante Lam, the second film follows directly on from the first which has set box office records in China.

It stars Wu Jing as Wu Quianli, the commander of the Chinese People's Volunteer Army's 7th Company and Jackson Yee as his younger brother Wanli.

They provide glimpses of pathos in a movie which has almost non-stop action.

After the heavy engagement's of the first movie, the sequel concentrates on the fighting around the American airstrip and is then focused on a strategically important bridge.

It accurately portrays how the intense struggle took place in driving snow making visibility very difficult and reflects the ferocity and relentlessness of close-quarter combat.

But most interesting is how the Chinese army is seen to forsake everything to ensure the honour of the country and their comrades.

It is a message which is coming loud and clear from those defending Ukraine as I write and yet the Russians hold a completely contradictory view of what is happening there.

Having now read American accounts of what they call Chosin Reservoir, the same could apply.

The Battle At Lake Changjin is hard-hitting but we had to wait until its conclusion before we saw its impact on an individual.

Only then did it really grab.

The united message has to be that, whatever its background, war never has any winners.

Reasons to watch: Intense battle scenes

Reasons to avoid: Not personal enough

Laughs: None

Jumps: Two

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? The Battle at Lake Changjin is one of the most expensive films ever made, with a production budget of over US$200 million. Shooting began in Beijing on October 25, 2020, and ended on May 25, 2021. 70,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers acted as extras.

The final word. Phillip Wolf (Visual effects producer): "PW: Looking back, the scope of the film — which turned out to be two films in the end — was truly astonishing. It really was a massive undertaking for all parties involved in its production. While the box office success of the film is amazing to see, I’m equally amazed by the sheer scope and scale of the end product that ultimately made it to the screen."

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