Devils on the Doorstep (2000) is a Chinese war film co-directed and written by Jiang Weng. Jiang also stars in the movie along with Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding, and Jiang Hongbo. The movie is inspired by the book Survival by You Fengwei. Shot in black and white to imitate old war movies, Devils on the Doorstep is set during World War II and in particular during the remaining years of the Second Sino-Japanese War.
This movie is recommended for fans of historical, wartime films and sociopolitical satire. Those interested in black comedy and the interweaving critique of war, especially WWII and the relationship between the Chinese and Japanese, should see this film.
The movie takes place in a poor town in China from the winter of 1944 to 1945. Under Japanese occupation since the 1930s, the locals have adjusted to the Japanese “devils” who regularly claim a portion of their grain but generally leave the residents alone. Jiang Weng plays the main character, Ma Dasan. The film begins as Ma Dasan’s secret affair with widow Y’uer (Jiang Hongbo) is disturbed by a mysterious and threatening stranger. With a gun, this stranger refers to himself as “me” and forces Dasan to take into custody two prisoners from the Japanese Army. He tells Dasan that he will fetch the prisoners on Chinese New Year and if they escape, the village will face dire consequences. The two prisoners are Hanaya Kosaburo (Kagawa Teruyuki), a soldier for the Japanese army, and his Chinese translator-collaborator, Dong Hanchen (Yuan Ding). The village succumbs to confusion and anxiety with their conflicting fears of the mysterious stranger and the Japanese.
Weeks pass and the stranger does not return. The heavy overshadow of the war and the Japanese soldiers drives the villagers into a dilemma: Should they return the prisoners to the Japanese or execute them? Although there is a deep divide between the two groups, Weng explores both the conflicting hostility between the Chinese and Japanese and the possibility of peace and harmony. Ultimately, war and the necessity for punishments and repercussions proves stronger than peace.
Jiang employs different motifs to emphasize the turmoil of the characters and deepen the dark satirical tone of the film. One example of this in the film is the presence of the Japanese marching band which pompously parades and plays an absurd tune everyday as an assertion of dominance over the village. As the film progresses, this display becomes more flamboyant and mocking. Stephen Holden from The New York Times writes that the film is “farcical and horrifying, it scrupulously avoids plucking heartstrings to portray the soldiers and peasants alike as paranoid fools buffeted by the shifting winds of war.”
The film received generally positive reviews with a 90% critics approval and 95% audience approval on Rotten Tomatoes.
V.A. Musseto from The New York Post writes:
If Preston Sturges and Stanley Kubrick had joined forces on a World War II movie, it might have been something like the Chinese export “Devils on the Doorstep.”
As directed and co-written by Jiang Wen, the black-and-white “Devils” is a wild ride that effortlessly combines devilish dark humor, slapstick comedy, extreme violence and bitter satire.
Director Jiang, a well-known actor in China, makes effective use of frantic dialogue, hand-held camerawork, close-ups and jump cuts.
The plot is original, the cast is adept at bringing the script’s zany characters to life, and the story takes subtle digs at xenophobia.
What more do you want?
Devils on the Doorstep premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2000, winning the Grand Prix Award. However, government officials were upset that Jiang submitted the film to the festival without prior approval. The Chinese Film Bureau attempted to convince the festival to remove the film. Following this, Devils on the Doorstep was banned in China and Jiang was banned from making movies for two years. The reason for the ban was the unpatriotic depiction of the Chinese during the Sino-Japanese War in the movie.
A report by the China State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) revealed in detail that the movie was banned because the Chinese in the film didn’t “show enough hatred and revolt towards the Japanese”, instead depicting an apathetic, nonchalant, and servile attitude. Moreover, SARFT claimed the film did not accurately depict Japanese cruelty. Another reason for the ban is that the movie, unlike its book inspiration, showed the Chinese as weak and ignorant about war whereas in Survival the Chinese resisted against the Japanese.
Watch a Chinese investigative news report about the ban of this film below and hear from a Chinese film critic about why he claims that Devil on the Doorstep is “the best movie since 1949”:
The Sino-Japanese War remains a sensitive topic in China today as apparent by this ban along with the censorship of other films that illustrate this time period. Recently, China has rewritten history books to increase the length of the Sino-Japanese war by six years. Read about this change here. On the contrary, Japan has been criticized for mollifying the atrocities of the war in their schoolbooks. Read about the story here.
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/devils_on_the_doorstep
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/more-ban-buck-china-120233
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