Learned about this so I just watched it. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_at_Lake_Changjin
from wiki:
“commissioned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party”
“the most expensive film ever produced in China”
“the highest-grossing Chinese film of all time”
“the highest-grossing non-English film”
“70,000 People’s Liberation Army soldiers acted as extras”
“a tabloid of the Chinese Communist Party, said that “the national feeling displayed in the film echoes the rising public sentiment in safeguarding national interests in front of provocations, which has great implications for today’s China-US competition.””
“former Chinese journalist Luo Changping was arrested by police and held on the charge of “infringing the reputation and honour of national martyrs” after multiple police reports were filed over his online post in Sina Weibo, where he posted commentary questioning China’s role in the Korean War”
Some screenshots i took:
Anyway, found this interesting from a global politics standpoint. Makes me feel slightly like China is prepping the sentiment of it’s people in case of conflict with the US and, should World War 3 roll around, China’s military decisions will already have the support of it’s people.
The scale is just crazy; like if all America was 100% ruled by a single party with a straightforwardly named “Media Propaganda Department” which then funded “the biggest american movie ever” as a piece to instill national pride showing Russia and China as badguys and beating them. I guess that China can do the equivalent is one of the abilities their more united government, with less transient rotating positions, can do.
Anyway, I had not known about this at all until yesterday and find it more interesting than common movies because of the scale and propaganda aspect. Maybe you will too.
Also, generally feels to me like the American top dream is becoming “be on the boards of multinational corporations” and generally losing patriotism specifically to America while it looks to me like Chinese patriotism growing; just my perspective.