![]() ![]() “crotch bombs”) and badly-written dialog, these dramas offer easy entertainment at the expense of historical tastefulness. Over the past few years, sensational anti-Japanese dramas have flooded Chinese television, to the government’s chagrin. The film feels like an Americanized anti-Japanese drama a novel concept, though not necessarily for the right reasons. Predictably, Air Strike contains loads of death and destruction-maybe too much. ![]() An Americanized Anti-Japanese Drama Not exactly what Adrien Brody is supposed to be doing here… (Courtesy of Lionsgate) All throughout, the pilots’ lives intersect with various civilian characters, including a professor of porcine studies, a reporter from Xinhua Daily, a mahjong-loving teahouse owner, and a teacher caring for students from a bombed-out school. ![]() ![]() In futile attempts to defend Chongqing, the squadron files outmoded Poliparkov I-16 fighters against Japanese Zeros and G3M bombers-a combination bound to please aviation enthusiasts for its sheer novelty (I’ve never seen another movie with I-16s). Meanwhile, other members of Xue’s squadron train under an American advisor, Colonel Jack Johnson (played by Bruce Willis). Our primary protagonist is Xue Gangtou (played by Liu Ye), a Chinese Air Force pilot temporarily assigned to guide a truck carrying secret cargo back to military headquarters-an agonizingly difficult task given constant Japanese strafing and espionage. While it’s not a museum, Air Strike attempts to carry that torch of trauma, telling a multi-threaded story about both pilots and civilians amidst the Bombing of Chongqing. Recently, local officials have compared the Bombing of Chongqing to the Nanjing Massacre and London Blitz, calling for another museum to help remember the traumatic raids. Tens of thousands of civilians died, as China’s fledgling Air Force struggled to fend off superior Japanese equipment and numbers before assistance from allies like the US helped turn the tide.Ĭhongqing bears scars from the war even to this day: the city still has underground air raid shelters (often converted to commercial purposes) and numerous museums about WWII-related topics. Born from Tragedyīetween 19, the Japanese military conducted hundreds of air raids against Chongqing, China’s provisional capital during the Second Sino-Japanese War (which, in the West’s eyes, gets folded into World War II starting 1941). Air Strike might just go down in the annals of film history as a Sharknado-esque cult hit, and an excellent example of everything that can go wrong with making a movie in China. Just shut off your brain, listen to Bruce Willis growl, and experience a movie that has so many layers of tragedy, you can’t help but keep watching for novelty’s sake. If you’re a war movie buff or Chinese film enthusiast with a strong sense of schadenfreude, you should really watch Air Strike through non-Chinese theaters and streaming services (there’s still a US/international release). However, tragedy isn’t an excuse to avoid this movie it’s quite the opposite. This big-budget Chinese World War II movie-which stars Bruce Willis alongside a smattering of Chinese A-listers-depicts a tragic period of Chinese history, experienced a tragically arduous production process, and had its Chinese release tragically canceled at the last minute due to a tax scandal. Air Strike (formerly known as The Bombing, and Unbreakable Spirit before that) falls into all three categories. Some movies are born tragic, some movies acquire tragedy, and some movies have tragedy thrust upon them. ![]()
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