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Devils on the Doorstep (simplified Chinese: 鬼子来了; traditional Chinese: 鬼子來了; Japanese: 鬼が来た!; literally "the devils are here") is a 2000 Chinese black comedy film directed, co-written and produced by Jiang Wen, starring Jiang himself, Kagawa Teruyuki, Yuan Ding and Jiang Hongbo. Shot in black and white to mimic old-time war movies, the film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival on 12 May and clinched the Grand Prix but was subsequently banned in its home country. Inspired by the novel Survival by You Fengwei, Devils on the Doorstep is set in the last years of the Second Sino-Japanese War during World War II and tells the story of a Chinese villager who is forced by a mysterious figure to take custody of two prisoners from the Japanese Army (Teruyuki and Yuan). Fearing both the mystery man and the Japanese, the village falls into a dilemma over what to do with the two prisoners. Contrary to its title, Devils on the Doorstep is not at its core an anti-Japanese war film. In Jiang's own words, the film shows how Chinese literature and film has perpetuated an attitude of blaming the aggressor and casting the Chinese population as passive victims of aggression. Jiang hopes that the film illuminates this common human psychological trait of blaming others for disaster that goes beyond Chineseness.
Original Release
03/14/2001
US Release
12/18/2002
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Wen Jiang | Ma Dasan |
Hongbo Jiang | Yu'er |
Teruyuki Kagawa | Kosaburo Hanaya |
Ding Yuan | Dong Hanchen |
Zhijun Cong | Grandfather |
Zi Xi | Liu Wang |
Haibin Li | Me |
Kenya Sawada | Inokichi Sakatsuka |
Weidong Cai | Er Bozi |
Lianmei Chen | Aunt |
Directors
Writers
Wen Jiang, Haiying Li, Xing Liu, Fengwei You
Cast
Name | Character |
---|
Wen Jiang | Ma Dasan |
Hongbo Jiang | Yu'er |
Teruyuki Kagawa | Kosaburo Hanaya |
Ding Yuan | Dong Hanchen |
Zhijun Cong | Grandfather |
Zi Xi | Liu Wang |
Haibin Li | Me |
Kenya Sawada | Inokichi Sakatsuka |
Weidong Cai | Er Bozi |
Lianmei Chen | Aunt |
Yoshimoto Miyaji | Koji Nonomura |
Qiang Chen | 'One-Stroke' Liu the executioner / Lone-Stroke Liu |
David Ng | Major Gao |
Shu Chen | Qiye |
Katsuhiro Nagano | Telephone Line Layers |
Ryosuke Uomi | Telephone Line Layers |
Yunshen Bai | Liu Wang's Father |
Haizhao Zhou | Little Thresher Yu'er's son |
Haidong Xu | De'rtou |
Shiru Du | De'rtou's Father |
Producers
Name | Role |
---|
Ping Dong | Executive Producer |
Quangang Zheng | Executive Producer |
Zi Xi | Producer |
Wen Jiang | Producer |
Xiaodian Liu | Producer |
Xiaodong Liu | Producer |
Hua Zhang | Producer |
Congxi Li | Producer |