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Cast: Adrien Brody , Tim Robbins, Zhang Guoli, Chen Daoming, Xu Fan
The Henan province disaster was one of the darkest moments in 20th-century Chinese history – a humanitarian crisis first sparked by drought, then compounded by a combination of windstorms, government corruption, and a war with Japan.
In the midst of the devastation, an American journalist (Adrian Brody) searches for answers, and slowly comes to understand that there may be a greater connection between these tragedies and his political theories than he once thought.
Starring Brody, Zhang Guoli, and Tim Robbins, this tragic retelling of events is based on Liu Zhengyun's bestselling novel Remembering 1942.
"Back To 1942" tells the story of China's devastating drought of 1942. What is written above is about all you need to know about the film before watching it. The more you are told about the film the less effective watching the film will be and that's what the whole experience is about here. This is an eye-opening story that is only made more shocking because it really happened. How can a country let that many people starve to death? Heart-breaking for sure but as a piece of history it is important and educational as well.
As far as the acting goes Xu Fan and Zhang Guo-Li are both incredible in the film and Adrien Brody gives a strong performance as T.H. White who is looking to get to the bottom of how this all could happen. In fact everyone in the film did a great job playing their roles. Production wise the film looks and sounds amazing but that is no surprise.
"Back To 1942" is an epic tale of tragedy that deserves to be seen. It is not a perfect film, I did find it to be a bit slow at times but with the run time that it has that is to be expected and I really don't think the minor flaws are worth mentioning when the focus should be on the big picture. Director Feng Xiaogang follows up his blockbuster real-life disaster movie AFTERSHOCK with another breath taking film showing that he is indeed one of the best filmmakers today. If you like Asian cinema or just enjoy a movie based on true events then I highly recommend checking this one out. It may not be perfect but it is pretty special.
Released by Well Go USA
**** Out Of *****