Review of Back to 1942 (2012) by Kong K — 09 Jan 2013

I think there is a cultural gap between the disposition of the chinese story tellers and the western critics. it is not uncommon to see intentional detachments in chinese movies on past sufferings, esp those of the recent past, which still hurt.

there are some good examples from zhangyimou too - for e.g. "To Live" which is about the suffering of a man who lived through the period between the chinese civil war till the end of the cultural revolution in china.

they share a common theme - moving on. the narrator at the end of "Back to 1942" said he asked his mother, who is the little girl the landlord picked up near the end of the movie, about the event 70 years after the event and she replied after a long silence "i've forgotten about that terrible event.

why are you bringing it up again?". that's the ultimate human strength - to move on. as long as you stay alive, you can move on. emotion is overrated. perhaps only those who have experienced great sufferings truly understand what that means.