Purple Sunset

An excellent movie with twists and turns everywhere in which three different people from three totally different countries and cultures must work together to survive. The movie shows the horrors of war and it's impact on the countries involved as well. For those who think war is a solution, watch this movie and think twice.

Real bad effects, but nice story, actually the first movie I saw in Chinese TV which is not just Japan bashing. Instead it really tries to take a different approach, remarkable for a Chinese movie. Also compared to the directors earlier works, which were merely propaganda movies. I hope that this start of a new way to reflect about the past, away from the stereotypes. An similar development which also took place in western war movies. In this movie Japanese are not only shown as inhumane, sadistic monsters, but you could see the fascist machinery behind the system, literally eating its own children. Finally I hope it helps to improve Chinese-Japanese relations too.

The movie is not that bad, and in fact, better than most Chinese movies, but it is definitely not in the same class of that of other directors, such as Mr. Yi-Mou Zhang and Mr. Kai-Ge Chen, who were the colleagues and friends of Mr. Xiao-Ning Feng.

Well, actually, although can not be compared with the movies directed by the other two, but this movie, and all other movie directed by Mr. Xiao-Ning Feng are definitely better than one movie directed by Mr. Kai-Ge Chen, Killing Me Softly (1999).

Mr. Xiao-Ning Feng should return to Chinese Children's Film Studio (no pun intended) because he has proven that he is equally talented in directing movies for adults and children alike, while the other two are mainly talented directors for movies for adults. It's hard to compete with directors like Mr. Yi-Mou Zhang, but there is not much competition in the area of Children's Films.

Told in flashback this is literally the story of the last days of World War Two in China. Days before the end the Soviets enter the Pacific war and begin attacking Japanese outposts in China. One raid saves a Chinese man from a firing squad and it isn't long before he's heading back to the Soviet base. A wrong turn and the convoy he's in ends up in a Japanese camp. A battle ensues and the Chinese man and two Soviet soldiers end up fleeing into the wilderness where they come across two Japanese girls. From this point the film follows the trek across the open country to get to safety.

The battle scenes are absolutely terrible. While they do have a sense of scale they are ineptly done on the cheap so that human bombs that are suppose to be diving under tanks to blow them up are clearly seen to dive next to the. A sea battle is embarrassing miniatures. If you can get past those then the rest of the movie is interesting, if not a bit preachy.

The majority of the film concerns itself with the dynamic of the various characters as they have to deal with survival, humanity and nationality on the road to safety. How the relationships change is interesting, if not always successful. It gives you food for thought.

Ultimately this is a very good, but flawed anti-war film.

A word of warning. If you are looking to find a copy of this film in English be warned the current translations available are far from good. The import copy I watched was almost unwatchable and I've read a review of a different edition that was equally awful. The titles seems to be literal translations of the words jumbled about. The film is worth seeing, only wait for an official English language release, since the bad translation severely hurts any enjoyment of the film (Rating applies to what a decent translation would make it)

This is b-movie / low budget film,the s.effect cant compare to hollywood movie,but thats the only reason im not giving 10 out of 10. this is the best anti-war movie i ever seen...excelent acting,briliant director,amazing script..what a deep meaningfull movie.