Eternity (1943)

Original title

萬世流芳

Directed by

Bu Wancang

Genre

historical film

Country

Manchukuo

Runtime

2h 31m

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This film tells the story of Lin Zexu and the First Opium War. It was made in occupied Shanghai during World War Two by Chinese and Japanese filmmakers working together.

propagandistichistoricalsombernationalisticambiguousmelodramaticausterepatriotic

What happens

Eternity (Chinese: 萬世流芳; pinyin: Wànshì Liúfāng) is a controversial 1943 Chinese film made in Japanese-occupied Shanghai during the Second World War. The film was a collaborative effort between the Japanese-controlled Manchukuo Film Association and Chinese filmmakers that remained in Shanghai under the Japanese-controlled Zhonglian Productions ("United China") brand. Telling the story of Lin Zexu and the First Opium War, the film was designed by producers Kawakita Nagamasa and Zhang Shankun to offer "an interpretive fluidity to accommodate every spectator's ideological position." For Japanese audiences, the film could be read as anti-Western, as promoting the ostensibly "anti-colonialist" agenda of the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere. To Chinese audiences, on the other hand, the film promoted a spirit of resistance to a foreign enemy – namely, Japan – and upon its release garnered the largest audience in Chinese cinematic history. Ultimately the film, as well as the Shanghai-based filmmakers, were seen as tools of the enemy once the war was over, with many involved in the production (notably directors Bu Wancang, Ma-Xu Weibang, and Zhu Shilin) eventually moving to Hong Kong due to the hostile environment. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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