‘Twenty Two’ looks at legacy of ‘comfort women’ atrocities
THE SUBJECT of the documentary Twenty Two could hardly be more lurid: the rape, torture and imprisonment of so- called comfort women by the Japanese military during World War II.
Yet Chinese director Guo Ke takes a quiet, deliberate approach. That must be partly out of respect for the women and their suffering. It’s also because this meditative film functions as a memorial to the remaining survivors: 22 of them when filming began, and even fewer today.
For viewers unfamiliar with the topic, Twenty Two provides the basic facts about the estimated 200,000 women enslaved in Japanese- occupied China. They were mostly Chinese, but the victims included Koreans and Japanese.
One Korean native who stayed in China appears in the film, visited by a photographer from the homeland she can’t imagine ever revisiting. Guo also introduces, discreetly, a young Japanese woman who’s trying to help.
The movie keeps a tactful distance, sometimes presenting testimony in voice- over rather than direct interviews. Onscreen most often are elegantly composed, slow-moving widescreen images of rural Chinese life and scenery.
Once ripped from their families and homes, the last of the 22 live now with families and friends, enjoying simple domesticity that’s threatened only by their memories. — Washington Post