One of the cinematic trends during Japan's colonial expansion period in World War II was to make films, that were made to look like co-productions with conquered Asian countries and territories. The purpose of these films was to paint a picture, where the Japanese were shown as friends of the other country, and to guide them into peaceful surrender and life under occupation. Often this was achieved by making films about history, showing how the relationship of the two countries is anything but new, and instead goes way back...
One director who had to turn in one of these, was famed jidai-geki veteran Inagaki Hiroshi. I've seen a bunch of these films that highlight Japanese superiority and I got to say, this one is technically a better film than most of them. It has a considerable budget, and therefore looks interesting in terms of the historical period depicted. Also, films like "Ai to chikai" (Love and Pledge, 1945) by Imai Tadashi or "Sayon no kane" (Sayon's Bell, 1943) by Shimizu Hiroshi featured more outrageous plot-lines and were thus in worse taste.
Inagaki's historical film relates the story of the Taiping Rebellion, as the Japanese would have it. The viewer is wise to read a bit before watching this film, so that you don't buy all of what's presented to you. However, the Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in China, from 1850 to 1864. In this complicated situation the Taiping forces were fighting against the Manchu dynasty and later, England and France were also featured in supportive roles for the dynasty. The Inagaki film (co-directed by prolific Chinese director Feng Yueh) shows a bit of how things went down, but highlights the role of Japanese as the only true friend for the common people of China.
The propaganda is less in your face than in the other films I have seen of this type, but it's there. Mostly, knowing the context in which this film was made stops me from enjoying it, as every little narrative detail has to be taken with a grain of salt. Then again, it is impressive, that they managed to pull such a budget to a film in 1944, as Japan was already seriously losing the war. The actors are Japanese jidai-geki stars of the pre-war period, or Chinese actors, and there's a few characters who are English, who by the looks of the credits are played by Russians. If this was the case, I would like to know how that came to be. Were they prisoners of war or something, forced to act for food?
