Ever since China opened up, Hollywood was one of the first
to carry its food tray lining up at the door. Strings of films were made to
impress them, either featuring err…Asian actors
or just shameless try to
portray China in a positive light.
This site
has this to say:
With China accounting for nearly
a third of the total US$576 million box office taking of this year’s smash hit
Avengers: Endgame, it’s easy to understand why Hollywood is eager to tap into
the country’s massive and lucrative film market. At the same time, Chinese
companies are also increasingly sinking fortunes behind the scenes into
American blockbusters.
Hollywood flicks are just too eager to welcome Chinese
production houses to sink in their fortune to take a big cut from the worldwide
profit, provided they have onscreen participation too.
That explains China’s presence as investors in this film, as
well as being shown in a positive light on the screen. Does it affect the film?
I don’t know, the political history of the World War 2 is
too huge for me to comprehend except we are told and believe that Germans and
the Japanese are the bad guys and they must be killed. Sure, their atrocities
are not to be trifled with, questioned, with ample of evidence too strong to
be buried. I have no issue in seeing them as bad guys in films…Nazis especially
are easy target for the politically correct Hollywood especially in these days
of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Now, about this film.
When I was a kid, watching war films has always been about rooting
for America…even if the film in Battle of Britain. Even when watching western
(we call it cowboy movies) we would root for the white guys.
But Hollywood did some serious revision on those genres.
Oliver Stone did few films and showed us in Platoon
that War is hell, stupid and pointed out that mostly when a soldier is hit, his
body parts get blown off, instead of him just getting shot, saying few last
words and slump forward...
Meanwhile, the cowboy genre gets a revision of its own
through its champion, Clint Eastwood, who having had glorified gun-totting cowboys
in the past, decided to tear down the myth and pointed out that they are just
another bunch of disgusting killers in Unforgiven.
One of my favourite war films is Mister Roberts, starring
James Cagney, Henry Fonda and Jack Lemmon which is a war film about a ship that
is NOT in the middle of the war. The war was boredom. I loved it, especially
Cagney’s hilarious no-nonsense character and Lemmon’s goofy antics, and the middle
of it all, Fonda constantly holding all together. Their boredom. Our fun.
Here, boredom was the film. I even slept through some
shooting and explosions, for crying out loud. I can vaguely figure out what was
happening, and all I know was this, the film hates Japan but loves China.
You see, times are a-changing. China is now poised to be US’
strongest ally, or so thinks US. The Yanks are trying too hard to court the
Chinese and the girl is playing hard to get. It’s all too visible for us to see
especially when you see how hard Hollywood is trying to please China.
You can clearly see it here, where American
films adjust themselves or do last-minute fittings to please the Chinese
crowd. Artistic integrity had always gone down the drain in Hollywood, now its
going to the sewage.
No wonder great filmmakers are
incensed with the comic book movies, which are, and its no secret, directed
straight to non-American market (read: China and its population). This film is
doing just that, get China’s attention because, hey, the bad guys are Japanese
and there are some Chinese cast members in it.
All these years of mollycoddling Japan, the world’s love for
their electronic products seem to be running out of steam. It’s China’s turn
now and they are proving to be fierce competitors among others.
All these seem to be reflecting in Hollywood’s close
co-operation with China and a Chinese company agreed to finance
one-fifth of the US$ 100 million budget for the film. Thus, the light
shining on the Chinese military during the conflict.
Unfortunately, from the entertainment point of view. the
film fails big time in at least getting my attention. I read that venerable film
critic, Peter Travers of Rolling Stones labelled this film “a hollow shell
stuffed with marshmallow”.
That’s exactly how I felt, hollow bamboo filled with scraps
of cooked meat. Nothing more, nothing less. The film will not go down, at least
in my book, as notable as far as the genre is concerned. But time would tell.
Only thing I liked about the experience of watching this film
is the short naps I had amidst all that shooting and explosion…after a bout
with dengue and sleepless nights, I needed that.
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