Three hours of mood against the USA

China’s most expensive film of all time is a three-hour propaganda battle against the United States. “The Battle of the Changjin Reservoir”, set in the Korean War, breaks all records.

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China’s latest blockbuster may be peppered with disturbing scenes, but one of them makes the viewer particularly blood in the veins. While the soldiers of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army – mostly peasants who were drafted voluntarily – prepare for the upcoming fight against the technically superior US troops, one of the protagonists asks: “How many Americans do I have to kill to be a hero? Two?”. The stoic answer of his superior is: “Put another zero on it”.

One may dismiss this as pure popcorn, but that would not do justice to the historical war film “The Battle of the Changjin Reservoir”. After all, not only is it the most expensive production in the country’s cinema history to date, at an estimated cost of 200 million dollars. The film is also largely financed by the state and the military – and is being released at a time when an actual war between the two great powers of the world seems conceivable for the first time.

Three hours of anti-Americanism

The plot is told quickly: “The Battle of the Changjin Reservoir” is set during the Korean War (1950-53), but the real setting only serves as a propaganda backdrop. Amazingly, not a single Korean is shown in the almost three hours, neither from the north nor from the south. Instead, the historical battle is mainly used as a pretext to let anti-American emotions boil up for almost three hours.

This is hardly suitable for the heroic story: The 9th Army Group of the People’s Liberation Army actually forced the technically superior US armed forces to retreat. But in the end well over 50,000 Chinese died in the conflict, including almost 30,000 a bitter cold death due to double-digit freezing temperatures. This is exactly what the directors stage in a less subtle way about the heroic act: The basic message of the film is that it is good to sacrifice your life for your fatherland.

The film is a blockbuster

This is obviously well received on China’s social media: “It is impressive to see how the volunteer troops froze to death at Lake Changjin while they remained in an attack position,” writes one user. “I couldn’t help but cry all the time, but at that point I literally burst into tears,” said another.

The ticket sales also suggest that the blockbuster is in tune with the Chinese zeitgeist: after five days, the film has already grossed over $ 310 million. According to the party newspaper Global Times, the work is said to have broken “ten box office records” on the very first day, including the highest box office results on the day of its premiere.

China strictly censors

Of course, one can argue that Hollywood, too, has repeatedly shot war-glorifying blockbusters in which the historical opponents were dehumanized in a fascist way: The sequels of the Rocky series serve as a good example, or the catastrophic “Pearl Harbor” ( 2001) by Michael Bay. But in a country like China, where even street musicians have to have every song approved in advance by the cultural office, you should weigh every word in the most expensive film in history.

A young film producer from Beijing explains how censorship works under the head of state Xi Jinping: “When we create content, there is always an office that can order revisions of the script and re-shoots, or even cancel the entire project. There are extremely many rules about “what we are not allowed to show in our stories”.

A successful war film?

And despite the self-critical inner perspective, she, who has studied in the USA, considers “The Battle of the Changjin Reservoir” to be a success: “A historical film must always be adapted to current international conditions, also correspond to the voice of the government and above all should he strengthen national self-confidence ».

This has indeed been achieved, and at the highest level of craftsmanship. With Chen Kaige (“Farewell, my concubine”), Tsui Hark and Dante Lam, the creme de la creme of Chinese filmmakers sat on the director’s chairs, all of whom were courted at festivals in Cannes and at the Lido in the noughties.

China is the largest cinema market in the world

Last but not least, “The Battle of the Changjin Reservoir” is a demonstration of economic power by the Chinese. Hollywood has been changing its scripts for years so as not to alienate the Chinese censors. In “Skyfall”, for example, the fight scenes of James Bond against Asian-looking men were cut out and in “Iron Man 3” the original villain was adapted. Any criticism, however subtle, can lead to a release being refused in the People’s Republic. The producers in China, on the other hand, do not have to be considerate: their cinema market has been the largest in the world since last year, while exports play no role.

Perhaps that remains at least a comforting thought: with works such as “The Battle for the Changjin Reservoir”, China will not be able to make up ground in matters of “soft power” internationally. The masters of cultural export is a small neighboring country: South Korea has been creating movies, series and pop music for years, which are consumed with enthusiasm around the world. “Squid Game”, currently the most successful streaming series, also comes from Korea and was produced by US Netflix.