A newly released Chinese propaganda film showcasing communist forces in China’s eight-year World War II struggle with Japan, has dominated the box office—if you believe official reports in state-run media. The truth is more about bureaucratic pressure and manipulated statistics.
As China celebrated the 70th anniversary of its hard-won victory over the Imperial Japanese Army in 1945, the communist regime was working hard to push its own politically charged narrative of China’s wartime history.
“The Hundred Regiments,” which glorifies the only major battle fought by Chinese communist forces during the entire war (the communists’ rival for the rule of China, the Nationalist Party, was the main force resisting the Japanese), fits in with the Party’s politically correct view of 20th century events.
But even as the film received praise from over 150 Chinese entertainment personalities, and reports claimed that it had outsold even the acclaimed martial arts film “The Assassin” by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien, it turns out that attendance at “The Hundred Regiments,” with its politically favorable message, was contrived.
