RELIVING HISTORY
‘Comfort women’ film ‘Great Cold’ to rescreen in the Chinese mainland after poor January debut
The release of the Chinese film
Great Cold in August is looking to ensure that the horrifying tragedies experienced by a group of Asian women more than 70 years ago are not forgotten as the group’s numbers continue to dwindle with each individual’s passing.
After its not-very-impressive January debut, the film focusing on Chinese “comfort women” – women forced into sexual slavery by Japanese troops during World War II – is scheduled to return to Chinese mainland cinemas on August 14 – International Memorial Day for “Comfort Women.”
“We already decided back in January to release the film again on August 14, not for money, but to make a statement,” the film’s director Zhang Yueping told the Global Times on Sunday.
Following the tragic story of Cui Dani – a woman from a village in North China’s Shanxi Province who, along with her little sister, is forced to become a “comfort woman” when Japanese troops invade her village during World War II – the film is a combination of a feature film and documentary.
Aside from the heroine’s story, which is loosely based on the experiences of three “comfort women” from the same province, the film also showcases the story of Zhang Shuangbing, a local village school teacher who spent more than three decades documenting local “comfort women” history and helping more than 100 members of the group seek justice for the atrocities committed against them in Japanese courts.
Zhang Shuangbing stars as himself in the film.
Not for the money
“These women have undergone so much pain and humiliation… I didn’t want to focus too much on the term ‘comfort women’ but instead tell a story about the group that reminds us all of their history,” said the director, who noted that he has been friends with Zhang Shuangbing for two decades and has met with a number of survivors throughout Shanxi along with him.
Documenting the stories of these women before the last of them passes away is becoming an increasingly pressing issue as the years go by.
Zhang Xiantu, one of the survivors who sued the Japanese government, passed away in 2015 at the age of 89 without receiving any compensation from Japan. In 2009, Japan’s top court recognized the crimes committed against the women but rejected their compensation claims, according to a report from the Xinhua News Agency.
Great Cold finished its 31-day Chinese theater debut in January grabbing merely 1.43 million yuan in total. Critics called it an “unqualified” movie due to its “unorganized plotting” and poor characterization.
However, critical reception may not have been the only factor contributing to the film’s poor box-office performance in January.
Premiering close to the Chinese New Year – normally one of the most competitive periods in the Chinese film market, the film was given only a 0.2 percent screen share on its premiere day of January 12. This number continued to drop over the following 30 days.
However, Zhang Yueping is adamant that the film’s January performance is not an issue for him.
“Even if we had earned any money from this film, we would have donated it,” Zhang said, noting that the film has left his studio deep in debt. Zhang did however admit that
Great Cold, which was his first attempt at a feature film, does have some artistic defects.
“I know the film’s quality is not very good, as some critics have pointed out, but I just want to express my thoughts via this work and hopefully audiences can resonate with it,” he said, emphasizing that he hopes his film can help more people, especially young people, learn about this dark period of history.
“That would make our efforts worthwhile,” noted the director.
Not forgotten
Great Cold is not the first Chinese film to focus on this topic.
“Comfort women” documentary film Twenty-Two hit Chinese mainland cinemas on August 14, 2017 and went on to become an unexpected commercial success. Raking in 170 million yuan in total,
Twenty-two was the first documentary film in China to break the 100 million yuan mark. The film is scheduled to release in South Korea on August 14 this year.
South Korea, also a victim of Japanese aggression, has also filmed a number of productions about this group in recent years, such as 2016’s Spirits’ Homecoming and the 2017 film Snowy Road.
“I kept in touch with Cho Jungrae [the director of Spirits’ Homecoming] while I was filming Great Cold, as the two films were filmed at approximately the same time,” Zhang said, noting that both films were made outside the normal studio structure.
“Crowdfunding allowed them to complete the film, while we took out a loan to finish ours,” Zhang explained.
Unlike other similar films, Zhang said he wanted Great Cold to be “a warm film.”
“We will eventually walk out from this cold history into a spring of warmth, kindness and the best parts of humanity,” Zhang said.