''Back to 1942'' is a 2012 Chinese

historical drama film A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as c ...

directed by

Feng Xiaogang Feng Xiaogang ( zh, s=冯小刚, t=馮小剛, p=Féng Xiǎogāng; born 18 March 1958 in Beijing) is a Chinese filmmaker and actor. Rising to fame for directing comedies, Feng played a pivotal role in shaping the Chinese New Year films, with f ...

. It is based on

Liu Zhenyun Liu Zhenyun (born May 1958) is a Chinese novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his novel '' Someone to Talk To'' (awarded the 2011 Mao Dun Literature Prize) as well as his involvement with the many film adaptions of his books. Among t ...

's novel ''Remembering 1942'', and is about a major famine in

Henan, China Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Luoyan ...

, during the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

. On 11 November 2012, the film premiered at the International Rome Film Festival. The film was selected as the Chinese entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the

86th Academy Awards The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best 2013 in film, films of 2013 and took place on March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5: ...

, but was not nominated.

Plot

The film is set in

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

, China in the winter of 1942, during the

. Master Fan is a wealthy landlord in a village in Henan. When the village is suffering from famine, Fan still has plenty of food to feed his family and the villagers. A group of bandits come and rob the village, eventually burning it down to the ground. Fan's son dies in the process of stopping the bandits. Fan flees his hometown with his daughter, wife and daughter-in-law. They are accompanied by a servant, Shuanzhu. While they are fleeing to the west, they meet Xialu, a fellow villager, and the latter's family. They decide to travel together, but Fan's food supply and money are stolen by

NRA NRA may refer to: Organizations Asia and Oceania * National Railway Administration, the national railway regulator of China * National Recruitment Agency, Central Recruiting Agency of the Indian Government * New Revolutionary Alternative, an anar ...

soldiers amidst the chaos caused by Japanese bombing. Brother Sim insists on preaching the Catholic faith in the starving province. After surviving a few Japanese bombings and witnessing many innocent people dying, he takes refuge under Father Megan but starts doubting the presence of God. Meanwhile, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' correspondent Theodore H. White treks to Henan to investigate the famine. He discovers that while people are dying every day and some have even resorted to cannibalism, the

Nationalist Government The Nationalist government, officially the National Government of the Republic of China, refers to the government of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China from 1 July 1925 to 20 May 1948, led by the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT ...

is still not doing anything to help the refugees. Chiang Kai-shek even wants to give up defending Henan, leaving the refugees to the Japanese. White's report is eventually published in the magazine, causing the Nationalist Government to make a U-turn on their policy. However, when relief supplies are being distributed in the province, the local officials and soldiers start fighting over who should receive a larger share. The plight of Master Fan continues as his family members die one by one. He is eventually forced to sell his daughter into prostitution in return for food. Losing hope on life, he heads back to the east in the hope of dying somewhere near his home. On his way back, he meets a little girl who has just lost her mother. He adopts the girl as his granddaughter and they continue their journey.

Cast

Alec Su Alec Su You-peng ( Chinese: 蘇有朋; born 11 September 1973) is a Taiwanese actor and singer. Su became a teen idol in the 1980s as a member of the boyband Little Tigers. After the megahit TV series ''My Fair Princess'' (1998–1999)'','' h ...

's scenes as T. V. Soong were deleted in the final cut of the film.

Reception

''Back to 1942'' received mixed reviews. It has a 40% approval rating on the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, based on 10 reviews with an average rating of 5.2/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

gave the film a score of 41/100 based on six reviews. Xan Brooks of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' wrote: Dan Fainaru of ''

Screen Daily ''Screen International'' is a British film magazine covering the international film business. It is published by Media Business Insight, a British B2B media company which also owned '' Broadcast''. The magazine is primarily aimed at those involv ...

'' wrote: Giovanni Vimercati of the

China Internet Information Center China Internet Information Center () is a state-run web portal of the People's Republic of China's State Council Information Office and the China International Communications Group. History The China Internet Information Center was launched ...

wrote: Daniel Eagan of ''

Film Journal ''Film Journal International'' was a motion-picture industry trade magazine published by the American company Prometheus Global Media. It was a sister publication of '' Adweek'', ''Billboard'', ''The Hollywood Reporter'', and other periodicals. ...

'' wrote: Neil Genzlinger of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

wrote:

Awards

The film won the A.I.C. Award for Best Cinematography during its premiere at the International Rome Film Festival in November 2012, and the Golden Butterfly Award. The movie won both Best Feature Film Award and Visual Effects Award at the 13th Beijing International Film Festival in 2013. It also won the Best Film of Mainland and Taiwan at the 32nd

Hong Kong Film Award The Hong Kong Film Awards (HKFA; ), founded in 1982, is an annual List of film awards, film awards ceremony in Hong Kong. The ceremonies typically take place in April, and have mostly been held at the Grand Theatre of the Hong Kong Cultural Cent ...

s in 2013.

References

External links