Directed by Tim Burton,Big Fish is an American fantasy drama movie, based on the 1998 novel of the same name by Daniel Wallace. The film stars Ewan McGregor, and Marion Cotillard. The movie was shot in Alabama in a series of fairy tale vignettes evoking the tone of a Southern Gothic fantasy. The movie received award nominations in multiple film categories. The film tells a story about the father’s legend in a child’s tone. Edward Bloom, an old man always shooting his mouth off, always shows off his marketing adventure. His son, Will, doesn’t believe what his father says, and the father and son gradually drift apart. Until the father may die soon, the son decides to come back to see father the last time, and the son finally understands father’s passionate life.

Big Fish is one of the few movies that refer to the Korean War. From 1950.10.25 to 1953.7.27, Chinese army and the United Army led by America were engaged in the war in Korea. The Military Armistice Agreement on North Korea was signed by the two meant the end of the war which rarely mentioned about by America. Compared to the Vietnam War, the Korean War seldom appeared in the films, newspapers, or political topics. The Korean War is thought to be unmitigated military failure by American that the most powerful country with Land Air Sea Warfare Joint three-dimensional operation was beaten by a poor country with primitive equipped land force. This is the shame and scars for America and American army. Don’t talk about it.

The Chinese girls entertain the troops.

In the film, Edward is conscripted by the army and sent to fight in the Korean War. He parachutes into the middle of a show entertaining Chinese and North Korean troops to steal important documents. The film tells that the actors show programs, and make some mistake at night. When they laugh at themselves to begin the next program, the conjoined twin dancer girls come on stage to show sexy song and dance, and then Edward drops from the clouds without notice. He fights with the soldiers. Then he goes into the tent, and finds two soldiers inside. He beats the two, and gets the important documents. Though the film does not tell the nationality of the soldiers and actors, but the martial arts and Chinese Mandarin shown by the soldiers and actors tell that they are Chinese.

When the conjoined twin dancer girls finish their program, the curtain falls, then the parachute left on the curtain hanging rod by Edward comes into the sight of soldiers. It alarms the Chinese and North Korean troops, and they begin to search for Edward. Edward hides himself in the twin girls’ room, where he hears they speak Cantonese, in a quarrel. The twin girls find him, but he succeeds to convince the girls that if they help him to get back to the United States, he will make them stars. And together they launch a long journey home, when he is unable to contact anyone and declared dead. This limits Edward’s job options when he does return home after four months, so he becomes a traveling salesman.

What do the film people want from the Chinese girls and Korean War?

I have to say that the plots about Chinese and North Korean troops are big failures. All that the film has deliberately done to dig at China make the film narrow and limited.

The film reveals some Chinese martial arts shown by two Chinese soldiers in a ridiculous way. The two Chinese soldiers do the job as two clowns, only without clown makeup. Especially the two soldiers finish the beginning form in the fixed position, looking at Edward and waiting for Edward’s attack, the plot comes to its highest laughter. The beginning form is just the gesture to fight and defense, valued by all kinds of martial arts, not just Chinese martial arts that has it. Every martial master has to admit that Chinese martial arts are delicate systems of fight and defense, and they learn a lot from it. That the film shows in this way just for making fun of Chinese martial arts just reveals that the film makers are lack of common sense.

In the film, Chinese troops are luxuriously dressed, warm and sound. The truth is that the Chinese Volunteer Army was directly exposed to the severe cold in the beginning of the war, and some soldier even fought the American Army wearing an unlined garment. This situation got better when the Chinese troops suffered huge human loss due to the cold, and made great effort to improve the replenishment, but the strike of the logistics from the American in the air always made the Chinese troops in despair. However, The United Nations Army led by the American never won the Chinese troops. On the contrary, many American soldiers have a high respect to the Chinese troops.

For the same reason, the Chinese girls in the film would never be dressed sexy and sexual, because they didn’t have the clothing in fact. In the Chinese troop’s history, literary soldiers to encourage combat troops in the forms of songs, dances, books, and so on, were an effective way to boost morale. But the literary soldiers were no different from other kinds of soldiers, and they ate, wore, and worked the same. So, the Chinese girls should be dressed in poor clothing. And, obscene songs would never appear in such special performance in the Korean War.

The Chinese troops use two languages in the film, the Cantonese and Chinese Mandarin, and surprisingly Edward knows the both. He can communicate with the Chinese girls in fluent Cantonese. A genius! But apparently, he gets a dictionary at hand. And how could he have the Cantonese-English dictionary at hand? Maybe he knows at the beginning that he will meet someone who speaks Cantonese. Or maybe that is the American Army pre-war training that teach them to speak Cantonese, and that is the prophetic vision from Pentagon. And thanks to the Pentagon, Edward together with the two girls put an elaborate plan for escape, involving a whaling ship to Russia, a barge to Cuba, and a small, dirty canoe to Miami, in Cantonese. It is really crazy.

The film involving the Korean War just for dramatic enhancement gives entertainment for the public, in such funny way. But if for dramatic enhancement, there are many ways. At the same time of the Korean War, many profound meaning events happened. Former Cuban President Batista to launch a military coup, American iron and steel industry workers to launch a strike, Bolivian Revolution, and so on, all created a great sensation that time. Edward would lead the American iron and steel industry workers strike to overthrow the American government. And when he is old, he can boast to his son Will that he is the president of America. That would be much funnier. So, the plot about the Korean War is to be criticized for its absurdity and lack of history knowledge.

Today, December 13th, the National public memorial day of Nanjing Massacre, is set by the Chinese government to commemorate the 300,000 victims in the Nanjing Massacre by the Japanese Army. On December 13, 1937, Japanese Army attacked and occupied Nanjing, and in the following 43 days from then on, innumerable civilians, unarmed soldiers, women and children, were massacred by the Japanese Army. Nanjing became a living hell. Here, the film Spirits’ Homecoming, tells another living hell, i.e., the misery of the comfort women in the comfort station. Spirits’ Homecoming is a 2016 South Korean period drama film written and directed by Cho Jung-rae. It is set during the Japanese occupation of Korea in 1943. The movie tells the story of 14-year old Jung-min and Young-hee. One day, Japanese soldiers come to kidnap the two girls in order to use them as ‘Comfort Women’. Jung-min and Young-hee plan to escape because of the constant sexual assault and beatings. However, while Young-hee succeeds, in order to save Young-hee, Jung-min is shot by the Japanese soldiers.

The Second World War, Japan, Comfort Women, behind which is the painful history, full of spots of tears and blood. In those years, more than 400,000 females from China, Korea and other Asian countries, suffered horrific ravage and slaughter by the Japanese soldiers. Most of them were buried in the history, even without their names. A few survivors, with their broken bodies, lived abject and grievous life, and they never were able to shake off the psychological shadow.

The cruelest thing is to destroy a beautiful thing, and show you the whole course. At the beginning, the film shows girls’ life with the keynote of pure and fresh. Trees in the wild, fresh wind and sunshine, carefree games with companions, families and neighbors, all show the simple and happy life. But, when the truck full of Japanese soldiers passes by, the perplexed and worried girls and playful smile on the Japanese soldiers’ faces, we all know the living hell is just right there. It is not fictional, but really existed in history. It is not isolated, but just one of the thousands of sufferings and nightmares.

And when the girls arrive at the comfort station where the Japanese soldiers vent sexual desire, they know what are waiting for them. They are in panic and fear and violation and beatings all day long, raped by dozens of Japanese soldiers. They are not allowed to speak Korean but Japanese, which make them lose freedom and country, and become unwanted wandering souls. Most of them are very young, even under age of 14, the flower age. The heroine answers the Japanese soldier that she is just 14, and a virgin, and she cries and begs and fears and screams, but the Japanese cares nothing and violates her. She is too young to know what the Japanese is doing. The most and heaviest atmosphere spreads out, and people cannot help shivering.

The film also tells the brutal truth that even the Koreans are never on an equal footing with the Japanese, even if they take service in the Japanese army. One of the girls, whose brother is the Japanese army, is still kidnapped to use as Comfort Woman. When the brother wants to save his sister, he is beaten soundly by the Japanese. And the sister gets mad, and she calls every Japanese soldier bother, because they are in the same uniform as her brother.

The Chinese girl in Spirits’ Homecoming.

There is a plot about Chinese girl. A team of Japanese soldiers go to the comfort station. On the way, there are bodies randomly thrown away by the Japanese by the road to corrupt, without bury or cremation. That is really inhuman, because it is the basic respect to bury the dead. But, it may be quite usual to the Japanese. A Japanese soldier stops, and he takes off one of the dead girl’s clothes. He wants the girl to take on the clothes before the violence. And the girl is Chinese who does not know Japanese, and she is beaten badly by the Japanese soldier for her disobey.

The plot emphatically shows that the victims are very extensive. China and Korea, close neighbors separated only by a strip of water, are all invaded by Japanese for years. Because of war and confusion and fighting, people of two countries often cross the border line and go in to the other country. But, Japanese armies are everywhere, and they are all under the repressive rule of Japanese. In both countries, they can feel the loss of home. And when the disasters come, not a man is spared.

Furthermore, the film implicitly criticizes Chinese government that China suffered most among countries invaded by the Japanese army, and the number of Chinese females kidnapped by Japanese for Comfort Women was the biggest, but Chinese government never set a hardline tone against Japanese after the War. Take Comfort Women for an example, there is national-level researches, publications, or supporting living Comfort Women to ask Japanese government for compensation. And there is even not a film about the Comfort Women. Chinese acts only verbally, not practically. Numerous historical people and facts are left in the long river of history.

Japanese never has the courage to face the history.

Comfort women were females who were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied territories before and during World War II. Most of the women were from occupied areas, including Korea, China, Taiwan, Philippines, Burma, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, East Timor, and other Japanese-occupied territories. A smaller number of women of European origin were also involved from the Netherlands and Australia. Estimates as to how many women were involved, numbers are as high as 360,000 to 410,000. Stations were located in Japan, China, the Philippines, Indonesia, then Malaya, Thailand, Burma, New Guinea, Hong Kong, Macau, and French Indochina. 

So far, there is no official declaration from the Japanese government to face and acknowledge the Comfort Women problem and the pain brought to the victims. This is a question clearly worth thinking.