Giving voice to ‘comfort women’
Amid all the horrors of World War II, those visited on the women of China by the Japanese occupying forces are often overlooked. Director Ke Guo’s “Twenty Two” rectifies that, giving voice to the surviving “comfort women” in this Chinese documentary.
Though there are just 22 women left, the Japanese army turned hundreds of thousands of women in China, Korea and the Philippines into sex slaves, and their “comfort stations” spanned villages and provinces.
Focusing on women in China, “Twenty Two” reveals name after name and face after face, and the volume of the rape is clear and immense. The women share their similar experiences with personal details that illuminate their unique lives. The effects of their imprisonment linger, with some unable to speak much about the occupation period, but many have also lived rich lives, surrounded by family and friends.
There’s an urgency in Guo’s mission to capture these women’s narratives as they climb into their 80s and 90s. Guo previously made a short film about the same subject called “Thirty Two,” with the number decreasing rapidly in just a few years.
There’s no artifice in this documentary, with the director simply presenting the women’s lives as they tell them, one after another. Slow-moving and sad, “Twenty Two” isn’t easy to watch, but it isn’t meant to be. — Kimber Myers
“Twenty Two.” In Mandarin and Chinese dialects with English subtitles. Not rated. Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes. Playing: AMC Atlantic Times Square, Monterey Park; AMC Puente Hills.