Hacker Cinema
The Battle at Lake Changjin
长津湖
2021 · Film · 178 min
Directed by Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, Dante Lam Chiu-yin
Korean War, winter 1950. In the frozen and snowy area of Changjin Lake, a bloody battle is about to begin between the elite troops of the United States and China.
1 negative9 neutralfrom 10 commenters
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11 comments on Hacker News
>- "This Kind of War: The Classic Korean War History, by T. R. Fehrenbach" seems interesting. South Korea still seems very grateful to the USA and commemorates the USA (and the rest of allies) that helped them during the Korean war.
For "easy reading"- viewing - there are somewhat informative - in very coarse grain sense - movies that i watched recently:
SK: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Jangsari
China (with heavy propaganda angle of course and a big budget): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_at_Lake_Changjin
The EU is just about building up to the task of proper self-defence against Russia, and China is not at all interested in a world order except as it feels necessary to protect domestic order. So they do things like border-pushing against India, the nine-island line, wars of words with Japan, and surveillance of overseas Chinese nationals, but other than that they are a long way from anything like the European colonial or world war era.
(IMO there has actually been a retreat from China trying to do propaganda "please like us" adventures overseas in the past few years. Peaked round about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wall_(film) / https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_at_Lake_Changjin - second highest grossing film worldwide of 2021! For a Korean War movie?!)
Odd media literacy take? Yes of course the propaganda is supposed to influence you, and of course if you're actually trying to analyse media you shouldn't let it.
(I retrospectively put the high point of recent West-China relations some time around the release of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_at_Lake_Changjin , which is an obvious propaganda war film with Americans on the "enemy" side .. that was shown in Western cinemas. Certainly in the UK, I think in America as well. Very odd. BTW, MOSFILM is on Youtube if you need some classic Russian cinema)
I'm not sure what was your intended use of the word "either", but I'd be careful calling movies like Maverick "US propaganda". Maverick is a privately produced movie that appeals to the American national sentiment, and the world's fascination with the US Military, but it's NOT government propaganda. The US Military was happy to see the movie, obviously, and fully supported its development with consulting services and realistic equipment, as it is generally the case with movies that help their struggling recruiting efforts, but they were not the reason the movie exists.
Battle at Lake Changjin was literally commissioned by CPP's government, literally including its department of propaganda and is part of a concerted government effort.
Also have in mind that the Chinese government imposes actual bans on content, such as "can't have this and that flag, or this or that line, or your movie can't be shown in China" in a way similar to Vietnam and Philippines. Actual Chinese propaganda movies can be shown in the US - they don't get shown often, if at all, because nobody wants to see them.
That's fair: there's not exactly a US market for "cool" Chinese military propaganda films either.
Budget: $200,000,000 (estimated) Gross US & Canada: $342,411 Opening weekend US & Canada: $105,768 Gross worldwide: $902,548,476
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt13462900/ ("The Battle at Lake Changjin" (2021))
Blimey.
Those films:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_at_Lake_Changjin
> CNN noted that the film was commissioned by the propaganda department of the Chinese Communist Party, while Business Insider and The Economist said that the movie was part of a "main melody" genre of entertainment that praises China, the Chinese Communist Party, and the People's Liberation Army.[53][54][55]
It doesn't say whether Wolf Warrior II was commissioned by the propaganda wing, but it stars some of the same actors.
China is already preparing. https://twitter.com/kamilkazani/status/1500537455921053701
"China is now launching the enormous warmongering campaign. In 2021 they produced the most expensive Chinese movie ever, The Battle at Lake Changjin, on the battle of Korean War against the US"
"If you watch recent Chinese movies like the Wolf Warrior, you'll see that China is preparing its public opinion for the war with the US. China may not say it to the US but they're absolutely saying this to their citizens. You can't fool yourself about it"
Is it possible that this "highest grossing film" figure is inflated?
I actually found a copy of the film and watched it over a month ago. While there were no subtitles for English, based on the production quality, I don't think it's a form of entertainment that would pass for "great" in the west or many other countries. Not that it's poor quality, but there are aspects of it that were cheap-ish. I'm talking explosions and artillery impacts that clearly look like squibs going off on cue, which is something most mainstream entertainment has either moved beyond or done a better job of making look realistic. The acting in some parts appeared over the top, while on the other hand they clearly struggled to find good White actors who could speak English and wanted to appear in this film.
To be fair, I the film appears to be of decent effort and wasn't the sort of disaster I was expecting it to be.
If you're a Chinese citizen and your dear leaders want you to see this film, are you not going to see it? And if you're in another country like Russia, wouldn't The Battle at Lake Changjin be at least a neat curiosity in that there's finally a film where the Americans aren't just the good guys?
Even then, should we not also suspect some form of shenanigans? I don't have evidence for it, but the CCP isn't really known for being not corrupted. They certainly have an interest in making sure its population is on board with a conflict with the United States.
All that to say that I think we should keep these things in perspective. There was a time when a film being the highest grossing meant something. Does it still mean the same thing in the streaming era? Does it mean the same thing in China as it does in the US?
The Battle at Lake Changjin was the first time a non-Hollywood film was the highest grossing film worldwide since like the 1910s or 1920s. (We don't have good records before then, when a bunch of French silents were popular.)
What I find most dangerous about the United States bending to the will of China via their corporations is that it's affecting our story telling. The stories we tell define how we remember history, who our heroes are and what we think is worth fighting for. In 2012 the script of Red Dawn (a remake) was changed so that it was the North Koreans invading the US rather than the Chinese. This was done to avoid provoking the ire of the Chinese market, a critically important market for our film industry, much like it's a critically important market for Intel. This trend has continued and worsened.
You'll notice there are no courageous well known film makers tackling the humanitarian abuses in China. It's a career killer.
And yet the most popular film in China in 2021 is The Battle at Lake Changjin which depicts the Chinese fighting American soldiers and winning. It's also the highest grossing film in Chinese history and the second highest grossing film world-wide in 2021. It's also the highest grossing non-english film of 2021.
America has lost the narrative and the Chinese have gained it without question. Our free market economy and desire for continued access to the Chinese market is destroying our freedom of expression and has left what used to be a community of courageous filmmakers shining light in important issues cowering in a corner.
The money quote from the article:
Scott’s explanation for the horrible box office performance? Apathetic millennials.
“I think what it boils down to — what we’ve got today [are] the audiences who were brought up on these fucking cellphones. The millennian [sic] do not ever want to be taught anything unless you’re told it on a cellphone,” Scott said.
“This is a broad stroke, but I think we’re dealing with it right now with Facebook,” Scott added. “This is a misdirection that has happened where it’s given the wrong kind of confidence to this latest generation, I think.”
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I think this might be an inflection point for movie theaters post-Covid.
Although the biggest blockbuster this year was "The Battle at Lake Changjin" in China.
https://www.boxofficemojo.com/releasegroup/gr3283177989/
https://www.slashfilm.com/626583/a-chinese-film-beat-no-time-to-die-and-venom-2-at-the-box-office/