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Devils On The Doorstep (2000)
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:9
Rotten:1
Average Rating:6.8/10
Theatrical Release:Dec 18, 2002 Limited
Synopsis: To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners were always 'devils' -- potentially dangerous outsiders who arrived on Chinese soil with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of... To the average Chinese peasant, foreigners were always 'devils' -- potentially dangerous outsiders who arrived on Chinese soil with dubious motives and nefarious intent. That was especially true of the Japanese soldiers who invaded China in the 1930s, first annexing Manchuria and then occupying large tracts of the mainland.Ma Dasan and his neighbours in Rack-Armour Terrace resented giving a percentage of their grain harvest to the Japanese 'devils', but otherwise co-existed with them quite peacefully.Things began to change the night when two prisoners of the anti-Japanese resistance were dumped on Ma Dasan's doorstep. One was the a Japanese soldier, the other a Chinese translator/collaborator. Ma was told to keep them hidden for a few days. But the days stretched into weeks, and the weeks stretched into months. Unwilling to keep the prisoners any longer and unable to execute them, Ma Dasan came up with the idea of retruning them to the Japanese army in exchange for two carts of grain.The outcome of his scheme taught him the hard way that 'devils' are not necessarily foreign … and that war can turn the best of men into the worst. -- © Fortissimo film [More]
Starring: Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding
Starring: Jiang Wen, Jiang Hongbo, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding, Cong Zhijun
Director: Jiang Wen
Director: Jiang Wen
Screenwriter: Jiang Wen, You Fengwei, Shi Jianquan, Shu Ping
Studio: Cowboy Pictures
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Reviews for Devils On The Doorstep
There's a gem of an idea lurking inside this movie, but the film is burdened with an overwrought and static first hour and wild tonal fluctuation.
Shot in rich, shadowy black-and-white, Devils chronicles, with increasingly amused irony, the relationship between reluctant captors and befuddled captives.
The farcical elements seemed too pat and familiar to hold my interest, yet its diverting grim message is a good one.
Rich in shadowy metaphor and as sharp as a samurai sword, Jiang Wen's Devils on the Doorstep is a wartime farce in the alternately comic and gut-wrenching style of Joseph Heller or Kurt Vonnegut.
This boisterous comedy serves up a cruel reminder of the fate of hundreds of thousands of Chinese, one which can only qualify as a terrible tragedy.
The tonal shifts are jolting, and though Wen’s messages are profound and thoughtfully delivered, more thorough transitions would have made the film more cohesive.
In its dry and forceful way, it delivers the same message as Jiri Menzel's Closely Watched Trains and Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land.
A wild ride that effortlessly combines devilish dark humor, slapstick comedy, extreme violence and bitter satire.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 44% 44% | Night at the Museum: B… |
| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 88% 88% | Inglourious Basterds |
| 78% 78% | The Hangover |
| 49% 49% | Taking Woodstock |
| 26% 26% | The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard |
| 47% 47% | The Girl From Monaco |
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