The Battle at Lake Changjin is a three-hour-long war epic about the Battle of the Chosin Reservoir, and it has grossed $769 million in China since its release less than three weeks ago:
It’s currently on track to become the highest-grossing film in Chinese history, surpassing “Wolf Warriors II,” which made $882 million upon its release back in 2017.
As the Chinese box office is the largest in the world, “The Battle at Lake Changjin” is technically the biggest film in the international movie market, even outearning the new James Bond flick, “No Time To Die,” according to the industry outlet.
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“The~ Battle at Lake Changjin” was sponsored by the Chinese government and deliberately timed for release on Sept. 30 — a day before the country’s National Day holiday.
The release of the big-budget blockbuster — which cost $200 million to make — also comes just months after China’s Communist Party celebrated its 100th anniversary.
The film’s release also coincides with Beijing’s growing aggression against Taiwan.
Over the weekend — as millions of Chinese moviegoers flocked to watch the film — it was reported that China has recently tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile.
Fifty years ago, the US formally recognized that Taiwan was a province of China, and that eventually it would be reunited with the mainland. We were trying to divide China from the USSR, and we were playing for time, hoping China’s communists would eventually fade away.
Actually, Tank Man, the unidentified man who stood in front of tanks in Tiananmen Square on June 5, 1989, momentarily made that hope seem real. But it was not to be. The CPC cracked down hard. But they continued Deng’s reforms and effectively bought off the democracy movement.
China was weak in 1972, an impoverished, unindustrialized peasant economy. Now its economy is one-third larger than ours, contains 30% of the world’s manufacturing capacity, 40% of it ship building capacity, and it is more modern than ours in most sectors. Its military is a full peer to ours.
Xi has committed China to raising the remaining 600 peasants to the international middle class life style now enjoyed by the other 800 million Chinese. That goal is achievable, but it will require a generation of peaceful economic growth. So no Chinese adventures before 2040, or maybe 2050.
But Taiwan is the joker in the deck. All by itself it could trigger WW III by declaring independence. A rational policy for the US would be to counsel Tsai Ing-wen and other Taiwanese leaders to chill out and keep the status quo in place. Who knows how a rich China would evolve? Instead our leaders seem to be provoking Tsai and others to declare independence, which she actually wants to do.
The other trigger is Ukraine, which SecDef Austin is visiting now. Austin should tell them that there will be no NATO for them and no American troop commitments. But Austin is a very stupid man, and DoD and DoS are run by very stupid people, and they report to a demented pedophile.
Anyone who lives is a major American city is an idiot. You need to get at least 50 miles away, out in the countryside.
Saw the ads for this film yesterday. That is called the Chosin reservoir by Americans. I would like to see how the USA troops are portrayed.
Chinese TV is full of series set during the Japanese occupation of China before & during WWII. General plot line seems to be clever Chinese outwitting stupid Japanese. Maybe that vein of history is getting worked out, so China is moving on to clever Chinese defeating stupid Americans in Korea.
The real point is that official China is proud of China and its history. The contrast with insider America could not be plainer.
Note the movie “Midway” from a couple of years back. Smart dedicated Americans turning the tables on capable Japan in WWII. An American movie, but made with Chinese investors because American studios had no interest in retelling an American success story.
The problem is not China and the Chinese Communist Party. The problem is the foolish US Political Class — and the rest of us, who tolerate their stupidity.
I wonder how the script writers handled the part where a Chinese blocking force arrives in position athwart the path of the retreating marines dug in and awaited the marines. When the marines arrived in their rush for the coast and escape the marines passed through the Chinese force without a shot being fired. The Chinese were frozen in situ, literally frozen stone cold dead frozen.
“The Chinese were frozen in situ, literally frozen stone cold dead frozen.”
Most Americans know the stories of our great victories: D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, etc. It’s a shame that we don’t hear about any of the real slogs, because it might smash the concept of “glorious war” in the minds of our youth forever.
The meat grinder at Hurtgen, or the endless, terrifying slog through the freezing, relentless winter at Chosin, I think, would be better things to teach our kids, than the glorious victories.
In both Hurtgen and Chosin, the Americans eventually accomplished their goals (breaking through the Seigfried Line in the former, and beating a tactical withdrawal without losing combat effectiveness and collapsing the lines at the latter), so this isn’t an anti-America rant. It might just do some good to actually teach about the horrors of real, actual war, so that we aren’t so qick to do it in the future.
You know, like right now with half the damn country clamoring for a civil war that they REALLY DON’T WANT, I PROMISE…
“The Chinese were frozen in situ, literally frozen stone cold dead frozen.”
Correct. Chinese probably suffered from the cold worse than the USA military. The Chinese units had to be withdrawn after the battle for refit and did not enter the war after.
Goober: “so this isn’t an anti-America rant.”
But you can see how close to an anti-America rant it is.
That is the big difference between the US and China — the American Establishment is all-in focusing on all the bad things in US history, to the complete exclusion of the occasional good things. The US Political Class has persuaded so many US residents to be ashamed of their history (and themselves), whereas China’s Political Class is trying to persuade their citizens that there is much to be proud of in their history.
War is Hell — that statement is true and comes from the American Civil War. So are Great Leaps Forward and Cultural Revolutions. But China’s rulers are not trying to tell today’s Chinese that they have Original Sin because of the bad events in China’s past.
I doubt that anywhere in America there are government teachers preaching that war is glorious. And that is a good thing. But history shows that sometimes the very high costs of war are the least bad option. Unfortunately, today’s anti-American Woke US Establishment prefers to sell the lie that the US has been the cause of everything bad in this world — even in 1619, a century & a half before the US existed.
“The Chinese were frozen in situ.”
So, they had the high honor to die holding their posts. A good screenwriter could handle it.
Gavin, very well stated.
Gavin is correct. The main reason this is so is because the Jews run the big horn propaganda machine in the US and Europe and love to demoralize everyone and pour hatred on them. The people they promote in White countries are a bunch of dissatisfied mass haters who hate society and find a willing financier in the Jews demoralization scheme. The amount of effort they put into this astounds me. Think what kind of mentality you have to have to constantly role out this onslaught of lies and gas-lighting for decade after decade.
It’s odd as can be but I can not find a torrent file to download or a place to down load this movie. This is extremely, extremely odd. Especially for something that has so many people seeing it. I would like to see it with english subtitles to see how they handle it.
War is indeed horrible, and people should recognize this. The problem is, of course, is that countries that teach their people that war is glorious usually defeat countries that teach their people that war is the worst evil. Mongols vs China, Germans vs French 1940. etc, etc. It’s not a hard and fast rule, but it’s the way to bet.
Victory is glorious, defeat is depressing. Peace is pleasant but dull — and always temporary.
War is just part of the way the world works, like the weather. The great civilizations all managed the problem of collective violence but never seriously tried to eliminate it.
Lost Cause theory is simply stupid.