Hong he gu

User "zzmale" commented on the fact that this movie showed the dark side of Chinese culture. True, Chinese culture, like all other cultures, have good points and bad points. What this movie also shows is the dark side of Western culture in that it is wrong for outsiders to interfere with the development of Chinese culture.

Just because you don't like something or because we mistreat our women, it does not give you the "right" to invade our country in order to spread your "freedom or democracy". It does not give you the right to kill our people, destroy our culture and force us to be Christians.

This movie illustrates the sufferings of the Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th century when it got invaded by various foreign powers, first the Western army then the Japanese. It's a miracle that China didn't fragment into various pieces like the Middle East. Look what happened when the Otterman empire was destroyed and broken up into small countries; today it is a complete basket case.

Western audiences need to watch movies like this and learn from it. Current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and possible future wars involving Iran and Pakistan showed that the Western powers haven't really learned anything from the past. Different faces but still the same modus operandi.