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Fri/Sat/Sun August 18~20, 2017

(August 18)

TheatersTheatersChina Film CinemaTel: 8661-7199Add: Block A, Building 2, Qushui Bay, OCT Bay, Baishi Road 8, Nanshan District (南山区白石路东8号欢乐海岸园区内的曲水湾2栋A区)

UA KK MallTel: 2290-6660Add: 4/F, KK Mall, 5016 Shennan Road East, Luohu District (罗湖区深南东路5016号京基百纳空间购物中心四楼)

Golden Harvest ShenzhenTel: 8266-8182, ext: 0Add: 3/F, The MixC, 1881 Bao’an Road South (罗湖区宝安南路1881号万象城三楼)

South Movie CityTel: 8261-1138Add: 3/F, Kingglory Plaza, Renmin Road South, Luohu District (罗湖区人民南路金光华广场三楼)

New South Movie CityTel: 2594-4588Add: 3/F, City Plaza, 1095 Shennan Road Central (深南中路1095号新城市广场三楼)

Shenzhen Jinyi Intl. CinemaTel: 8280-1168Add: G/F, Central Walk, Fuhua Road, Futian District (福田区福华路怡景中心城内G楼)

Broadway CircuitTel: 8881-1222Add: 2/F, Coco Park, Fuhua Road 3, Futian District (福田区福华三路Coco Park二楼)

China Film Antaeus Intl. CineplexTel: 8253-1188Add: 3/F, Jiaxinmao, intersection of Nonglin Road and Qiaoxiang Road, Futian District (福田区农林路和侨香路交汇处嘉信茂三楼)

MCL Cinema CityTel: 2685-8870Add: 5/F, Garden City Center, Nanhai Boulevard, Nan-shan District (南山区南海大道花园城中心五楼)

Holiday CinemaTel: 8269-8989Add: L3, Yitian Holiday Plaza, opposite Window of the World, Nanshan District (南山区世界之窗对面益田假日广场L3层)

Coastal City CinemaTel: 8612-9988Add: 3/F, Coastal City, 33 Wenxin Road 5, Nanshan District (南山区文心五路33号海岸城三楼)

ScheduleScheduleCurrently playing

Twenty Two (Mandarin)——————————————

Peace Breaker (Mandarin)——————————————

The Founding of an Army(Mandarin)

——————————————Guilty of Mind (Mandarin)

——————————————Legend of the Naga Pearls

(Mandarin)——————————————Once Upon a Time (Mandarin)——————————————

Wolf Warriors 2 (Mandarin)

《二十二》

Starring: Mao Yinmei, He Yuzhen, Wei Shaolan, Li Fengyun, Zhang Xiantu, Li Xiumei, Zhao Lanying, Liu Gailian Director: Guo Ke

Twenty Two

A scene from “Twenty Two.” File photo

ONE of the most sensitive topics in regional Far East Asian politics these days, Japan’s use of “comfort women” during World War II is a constant talking point on the news. Among the more sobering and least sentimental treatments of the subject to come about in the last few years, Guo Ke’s Chinese documentary “Twenty Two” (which was co-pro-duced with South Korea) sought out the 22 remaining “comfort women” in China, the last survivors of a group that numbered some 200,000 at its peak during World War II.

Though handsomely shot and poignant at times, Guo’s work is also marred by a certain amount of lethargy. Some of the atrocities recounted by the former “comfort women” are heart-wrenching and rendered effective by being shown without embellishment, but by seeking to investigate the current lives of all remaining 22 survivors, the quality and impact of the tes-timonies vary greatly. Among the survivors are those who are under-standably reticent and divulge little, while others decline to be fi lmed at all. Yet this shyness also leads to the fi lm’s strongest scenes, when women stop speaking and break down, dealing with the onslaught of bad memories.

China’s case is not unique, as other nations are still badly scarred by the terrible liberties exercised by the Japanese military prior to the end of WWII. It’s no accident that the fi lm was co-produced with South Korea,

as this is a story that also belongs to them, as many Korean “comfort women” were brought to Manchu-ria, a fact that is carefully detailed on screen. On the 70th anniversary of Japan’s surrender and the end of sexual slavery, South Korea is still grappling with Japan’s refusal to acknowledge the atrocities that took place.

Quite slow-going for most and with constantly changing emotional focuses, “Twenty Two” proves to be a well-meaning and sober but scatter-shot documentary of elderly victims living a bleak present-day existence. Despite the natural impact of the sub-ject, the fi lm’s strongest asset proves to be its redolent photography, which gives the proceedings a dark, earthy feel, framing the women as pieces of their shanty homes, as elements in the harsh natural landscape fre-quently battered with rain.

“Twenty Two” marks Guo’s fi rst feature-length documentary and follows his mid-length work “Thirty Two,” which dealt with the same subject in 2012, when there were still 32 survivors in China. Clearly these people won’t be around much longer to tell their stories, but the ignominy they endured is unlikely to disappear with them as the ranks continue to dwindle.

The documentary fi lm has become unexpectedly popular in Chinese the-aters, with the director pledging to donate all proceeds to victims.

The fi lm, with a 3 million yuan (US$448,620) budget, has no big

movie star and the distributors lack funding for promotion. When it debuted Monday, it had only 1.5 percent of movie slots in theaters, currently dominated by Chinese blockbusters such as “Wolf Warrior II” that has so far grossed 4.78 bil-lion yuan.

But the situation soon changed. Theater managers realized that there are more people sitting in the screening halls for “Twenty Two” than those in other fi lm showings, so they decided to increase screen time for it. At the same time, China’s prominent director Feng Xiaogang published a letter from actress Zhang Xinyi on his personal microblog Weibo account, asking for more attention to the fi lm.

“Twenty Two” is expected to gross over 300 million yuan when it ends its theater run, according to estimates by fi lm analysts. It will be another Chinese fi lm market miracle this year, as the director initially only anticipated 6 million yuan of revenue from the box offi ce.

The success of “Twenty Two” should also be attributed to its release date set on the International ““comfort women”” Memorial Day on Aug. 14, followed by the 72nd anniversary of Japan’s unconditional surrender in WWII on Aug. 15. The dates provoked debates on social networks and patriotic emotion that helped it soar.

The fi lm is now being screened in Shenzhen.

(SD-Agencies)