Back to 1942 Page #5

Synopsis: A famine with multiple contributing factors and devastating effects during the Second Sino-Japanese war is chronicled from the official perspective of reporters, generals, politicians and real families whose lives were forever altered by drastic measures they were forced to take in order to survive. Alternately ignoring the dire nature of the famine and its subsequent exodus of millions of people from the Hunen province, and minimizing its devastation to the outside world, the Chinese Nationalist government of the time is one which seems to be over burdened by ongoing war efforts and corruption in the distribution of relief supplies. Policy and private life are worlds apart in stopping the devastation shown through the portrayals of those who lived to tell the tale and their accounts of those who were not so lucky, of whom there were many (3 million.) This is a true story based upon Liu Zhenyun's novel "Remembering 1942," Zhenyun himself is the descendant of a survivor of the 1942 fami
Genre: Drama
Director(s): Xiaogang Feng
Production: China Lion Entertainment
  24 wins & 11 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.9
Metacritic:
41
Rotten Tomatoes:
36%
NOT RATED
Year:
2012
145 min
$212,475
Website
37 Views


I'm on a tight schedule.

It's urgent.

I have to go to the airport to pick up

the president's special envoy.

Five minutes.

Give me five minutes. Okay?

Please.

Fine. Five minutes.

Your story

sounds made up.

No one is going to believe you.

If I hadn't run into several

Chinese communications troops,

I'd have starved to death along with

the rest of those poor people.

If you report this in Time Magazine,

it will be explosive news.

I want to tell the Chinese government about

what's happening in Henan.

Please.

But this is China's war.

For God's sake.

It's out of my hands.

Troublemaker.

Before I went to Henan,

it was easy for me to meet with

government officials.

I don't know, now that I have returned,

it's like I have a contagious disease.

I can no longer meet

with Minister Song Ziwen

I can not longer meet with

Minister Zhang Daofan,

and Ambassador Gaus can't help either.

With the assistance of Xie Weisi

at the U.S. Embassy

I was able to see the Chairman of

Sichuan Province.

He told me he has no control over Henan.

He introduced me to Sun Ke,

president of the Court.

He told me that only General Chiang

can make any changes.

Lastly I met with Yu Youren.

He says I had to sit with you

and that perhaps you can help me

meet with Generalissimo Chiang.

Well, I understand.

He is very busy.

But don't worry.

I Will call him.

How long shall I wait?

Five days,

or ten days.

Or maybe you won't see him at all.

What?

Want some?

Give me a kiss.

After this is over.

I can't wait any longer!

Didn't work?

I'm telling you,

a girl gets a little education and

she thinks she's special.

I'll sleep with you for the crackers.

I don't have any crackers.

- Give them to me.

- I don't have any!

Give it to me!

You and Master Fan got Xialu killed.

You've got to make that right!

One life

is worth two crackers.

Good!

There's the head!

Good!

Push.

I'm dying.

I don't have the strength.

Push.

Keep on pushing.

There it comes!

Here, the scissors.

She did it.

L't'S a boy!

Alive!

Hurry! Hurry! Faster!

Ancestors bless us.

Ancestors be praised.

Master Fan!

Come give the boy a name!

With a name, he'll have a

better chance of living.

Sure.

Call him Liucheng - a

good, auspicious name.

Just kill him.

Back on the road,

I won't have any milk for him.

He won't make it.

Don't say that!

Kill a healthy baby like this one?

We can't kill him!

Look,

I'll sell my coat

and make a nice hot soup for you.

Sweetheart,

I'm sorry.

You brought that cat all this way

and today we had to

kill it.

Dad...

I want some soup too.

Lisheng.

You are in charge of the

press, are you not?

Yes.

This is an editorial about

the situation in Henan.

Readit.

Our readers will have

seen yesterday's report

about the disaster in Henan.

Who could have imagined

were doomed to the hellish

fate of starvation?

This is all my fault.

I just got back from Guangxi yesterday.

This Wang Yunsheng,

he's the editor of Ta Kung Pao?

Yes.

Poisoning people's minds.

Shut his paper down!

Shut his paper down!

But.

Wang Yunsheng

has been invited by

the U.S. Office of Strategic Services.

He will leave for America in a few days.

At this...

I don't think he should go.

Even more people

are talking about the war in Henan.

They're say we're abandoning Henan

and leaving the refugees to the Japanese.

It's an open secret.

When did we say we were giving up on Henan?

Set the record straight with an editorial.

Set the record straight with an editorial

in the Central Daily News.

Yes sir.

Right away.

The Generalissimo will see

Mr. Wilkie off at the airport.

You only have fifteen minutes.

You understand Chinese, right?

Yes.

Then I won't have to translate for you.

But I am going to have

to speak English, okay?

Okay.

Generalissimo,

This is Mr. White.

Mr. White,

I've heard of you.

Nice to see you.

Honorable Generalissimo,

It grieves me to report to you

that thirty million people in Henan

don't have enough food to eat.

Each day an increasing number of refugees

are starving to death.

He is reporting on the situation in Henan.

He says many people are starving.

It's been explained to me by some officials

it is because there is a war going on,

but I was there

and it appears as if the Japanese

haven't started an attack on Henan.

He says the government must not

know what's happening.

Officials say it's because of the war,

but the Japanese haven't

started attacking Henan.

There is indeed a famine,

but it's not as severe as you say.

With all due respect, Generalissimo,

I've heard that people are now

resorted to eating each other.

He heard there's been cannibalism.

Impossible.

Something like that could

never happen in China.

I've seen dogs eating people.

I've seen it.

I've seen it, Sir.

He saw it himself.

I've seen it, Sir.

Please.

I never imagined

things could be so bad.

If the famine is indeed

as severe as you say

then the government

will surely take action!

These self-satisfied Americans.

They're nothing but trouble!

If those pictures get published,

they'll call me the Generalissimo

who sat by while his people suffered.

A heartless despot.

Farewell!

Farewell!

Farewell!

Farewell!

White's article about the Henan famine

has been published in Time.

Should I confiscate

all the copies of Time in China?

No.

Buy as many copies as possible.

Have the Foreign Ministry

translate it into Chinese.

Send a copy to every minister

and provincial governor.

Add Li Peiji's reports at the end.

We need to send relief

as soon as the Japanese leave.

Otherwise, what will the

rest of the world think?

We'd be as corrupt as they say we are.

Contact Yan Xishan.

Have them immediately send supplies

to the disaster area.

Then,

tell Zhang Lisheng

to mobilize all of China to raise

relief funds for the refugees.

There are times

when I miss the old

Northern Expedition days.

All I had to do was give the order,

and my men would leap into action.

I had no burdens

keeping me from standing with the people.

How is she?

She lost a lot of blood, and with the cold

her pulse is very weak.

You've got to do something.

If you save her,

I'll give you two acres of

land when this is over.

Master Fan,

the cure is very simple.

Just give her some food.

If you want to know,

my mother and my grandchildren

died of hunger on the

road these past two days.

I'm so hungry I can't walk straight.

Master Fan!

Master Fan, hurry!

What is it?

She stopped breathing.

She was a good daughter-in-law.

I don't know what I'll tell her family,

letting her die like this.

What are you doing?

Give the baby some milk

while her body is still warm.

My god!

What?

She hasn't eaten in five days!

She is as thin as a stick.

How can she have milk?

Gentlemen,

After urgent appeals from

the provincial government,

the central government has started

providing relief aid to Henan.

Starting this month,

the central government

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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