Rent The Battle at Water Gate Bridge (2022)

A Chinese nationalist propaganda film - The Battle at Water Gate Bridge review by PV

I could only bear a few minutes of this - it's basically a Chinese nationalist propaganda film. JUST propaganda.

Remember, in the Korean war, the Chinese were fighting for what is now North Korea - where people starve to death and live under a Stalinist regime.

There were British soldiers, Americans as well as Koreans fighting the Chinese AND SO we now have a place called SOUTH Korea.

The Chinese 'heroes' here ensured half of Korea would be under communism.

North and South Korea - compare and contrast.

High budget film of the Korean war from the Chinese point of view - The Battle at Water Gate Bridge review by JD

First up there are obvious points of political interest here. And one reason for us watching it was to see how China portray there side of an event.

Indeed, as we have seen recently its ,foolish, arrogant and naïve to simply think 'we are right' all the time.

In this case some points were interesting - having to sacrifice men due to the fact they were massively out matched technically. Capturing the superior Western equipment was absolutely critical to them. The US wanting to win - at any cost to the locals and threatening the Chinese borders. And generally the Chinese just being totally outmatched.

However, they also push it the other way. Such as the US troops are largely portrayed as thugs of no value (you can disagree with politics, but soldiers are soldiers no matter what there nationality) And the end is, lets say deceptive.

As a war film, the special effects are bad, the action silly, the dialogue I cant comment on as the translations were great and I dont speak Chinese

Its clear they have made an effort but sadly its just not good enough in to many areas.

Eastern films often take the stylised exaggerated legend type approach (like the 300 for a western example) which this hints at - but its not overt enough to cleary be in this style so just comes across as daft.

As a comparison, we watched Black hawk down again recently. And its in another world. As a war film its just so much better, and politically Ridley Scott makes sure we get both sides of the story but its done so as not to distract from the focus of the film and simply adds incredible depth as you get hints of 'two sides to the story'

Perhaps an unfair example to compare to. But i think how Ridley Scott handled making a brilliant action film, while staying true to life and also questioning the politics while keeping the viewer 'on side' deserves a lot of credit and certainly serves as an example of US 1 - 0 China!

Im one who critises hollywood a lot but something like this makes you realise they do make good stuff sometimes!

Try again China.

Ridiculous Chinese propaganda film - The Battle at Water Gate Bridge review by Alphaville

Hard to believe this sort of propaganda film is still being made in the 2020s. Even if you’re on the Chinese side, surely it must seem ridiculous. The snowy battle scenes are lavishly filmed by acclaimed director Tsui Hark, but the heroic Chinese soldiers are hammy cardboard cut-outs and the wooden American soldiers, obviously poorly directed, are a joke. There’s plenty of repetitive explosive action, but have pyrotechnics ever been so boring?