First of all, please forget the knowledge of geography and history that you have already mastered. Treat this film as an overhead history, as a parallel world, as a chaotic time-space war, then you have the best view of this film. Basic psychological endurance! China in the twelfth century was at the turn of Liao and Jin. When you head east from the palace, you will first pass through the forest swamp, then through a desert, to the ancient desert city called Jinyang, and finally to the swamp and forest.
Secondly, when the Chinese in the movie open their mouths, please don't be dumbfounded! Because the monkeys headed by Caesar in "Rise of the Apes" have deeply humiliated and hurt you in linguistics. Even beasts can speak English fluently and idiomatically, let alone people?
Yes, please always remember that this film is a foreign film directed by a foreigner and starring a foreigner! It would be weird if they all speak Chinese! Think of the Japanese in "The Last Samurai" who speaks English, and think of the oriental mythological character in "The King of Kung Fu" who speaks English. If you still can’t figure it out, just move out of the classic Disney cartoon "Mulan". Even Hua Mulan, Shan Yu, and the Emperor of China speak fluent English, and the Chinese in any movie can't speak English!
I have to mention these three movies. The author originally thought that the film was a money-swindling work of Hollywood obscene Chinese culture like "The King of Kung Fu". Unexpectedly, this film is really not to cheat money. Look at the large number of hand-held cameras, sharp action editing, realistic fighting, and the psychological setting of the protagonist's war trauma, you can see sincerity everywhere. Speaking of actions, the Chinese army's combat methods and fighting arts have won the true story of the Western Crusades. Not to mention, this is the commonality of civilization. When you face war and death, in order to save your life and survive, those similar actions are probably the actions of human instinct.
The setting of the movie and the background of the protagonist are in the same mode as "The Last Samurai". One is the Crusades of the East, and the other is the Westward Movement of the New World. In essence, they were all slaughter of foreign civilizations by self-recognized advanced civilizations. In the end, their executioners could not bear the psychological trauma and fled to the mysterious east. Both movies are Eastern culture in the eyes of Westerners. It's just that "Samurai" is a real Japanese culture. The protagonist has the characteristics of the Japanese samurai spirit, and gradually accepts and integrates into the local life, becoming a representative of that culture. Even the protagonist finds that the spiritual core of this eastern culture is enough to fill the emptiness in his heart and heal the wounds of war, thus abandoning his original cultural identity. This is due to the early opening of the country by Japan, and the second is that they are good at promoting their own civilization, so the Japanese elements in the film are accurate and profound.
And this film is the real East in the eyes of Westerners-the Chinese emperor in the eyes of Westerners, and the weird Chinese in the eyes of Westerners-these images all remind the author of the "Flower Milan". work. The most important thing is that the Chinese army in this film is just a crusader in Eastern armor. We often say that imitation must have both form and spirit. "Desperate Escape" seems to be a reprint of "The Last Samurai", but in fact, let alone the gods, even the form is not learned at all. Don't expect this film to have a bridge for Westerners in "Samurai" to integrate into Eastern culture. The protagonist of the film has a sense of cultural and civil superiority from beginning to end, and even has a potential intention to change the Easterners. Not to mention the reflections on the collision of Eastern and Western cultures and the reflections on modern and traditional cultures. This film is purely a foreigner's poor obsession with Chinese history and Chinese culture and a weak reflection on war.
Probably, only if you regard this film as a live action film of "Mulan", you won't be disappointed.
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