On December 29, 2013, a film was released in mainland China (non-public release). On March 30, 2014, the film was released in the United States.
This movie is called "Thirty-Two". In 2013, this short film won awards as soon as it was released, and has won many awards since then. Some rewarded short films tell a tragic story in reality, and some rewarded short films reveal the truest and darkest history in human history.
On August 14, 2017, the sequel was released, titled " Twenty-two ". The name is not meant to be mysterious, but there are only 22 protagonists left in the film. The film was specially selected to be released on August 14th because this day is the "World Comfort Women Memorial Day".
are two films of the same origin. Not only do they have the same "theme", but their shooting techniques are also highly similar. It was as if a story was not finished yet and then it was finished. The story is about a group of poor people, a group of victims, and a group of "comfort women" who have not received justice to this day. The two films that
became famous for did not use the special effects widely used in commercial films of the same level. They can be said to be the least "technical" among the films of the same level. This film does not use various academic expression techniques, nor does it use lens language full of "artistic" feeling. Even the shooting techniques are slightly rough. It only uses a few " montage " during editing. That's all. The camera is as calm as possible, allowing the protagonist to speak for himself, without narration or commentary. The two films have another thing in common. Like "Thirty-Two", "Twenty-Two" also won many awards.
"Twenty-Two" is the first documentary on the subject of "comfort women" to be qualified for public release.
After the filming of "Twenty-Two" was completed, director Guo Ke found that the budget of 4 million yuan had been spent, and he could no longer even pay for the distribution fee. A crowdfunding campaign was launched on the public welfare platform, and the number of people who participated in the crowdfunding and contributed funds reached 32,099, and the names of these people also appeared at the end of the film one by one. This situation also happened in South Korea.
The Korean movie "Ghost Town" also has extremely tight funds, and most of the staff work for free. Even if the crowdfunding reaches 500 million won, it is still far from the budget of 2.5 billion won. Even investors withdrew their capital and had to crowdfund again. You must know that South Korea is filming an commercial film , and it is still facing such difficulties. In comparison, the difficulties encountered by our country's documentaries are not difficult and dangerous.
The box office of "Twenty-Two" reached 170 million, and together with the documentary "Awesome, My Country", it forms the ceiling of documentaries in our country. Director Guo Ke and sponsor Zhang Xinyi did not make this money. Together they donated the money they made from the film, completing a certain sublimation of life.
Whether it is "Thirty-Two" or "Twenty-Two", the entire film has no commentary or narration, no historical footage is edited, and no universal "meaning" is explored. It is simply to record their present, record the part of their memories that they want, record their emotions, and work with specialized staff to let the world see and listen to the conditions of these victims. To prove that the world is not all about which gifts to buy on which anniversary, and not all about the first cup of milk tea in autumn.
"Thirty Two" invites Wei Shaolan and her son Luo Shanxue from a remote rural area of โโGuangxi to be the protagonists. The story is that in 1944, when the Japanese army invaded Guangxi, 24-year-old Wei Shaolan and her 1-year-old daughter were captured by the Japanese army and sent to a "comfort station". After suffering three months of inhuman torture, Wei Shaolan luckily escaped with her daughter. Devil's Cave. When she finally returned home after three days, she never imagined that she would face such unpredictable suffering.
Wei Shaolan's suffering did not end just because he escaped home by chance, but the pain became more and more boundless. Her 1-year-old daughter died shortly after she returned, and she unexpectedly became pregnant with a Japanese soldier's child. She wanted to have an abort, but was told by the doctor that it would affect her fertility. With the encouragement of her mother-in-law, Wei Shaolan gave birth to a son, Luo Shanxue, who would be relatively silent in the future.
Wei Shaolan endured all this with strength. Wei Shaolan was 97 years old when the film was filmed. Although he lived in the only adobe house in the village, ate the cheapest cabbage, and was always ready to eat "wild things" (wild vegetables), but It can be seen that Wei Shaolan is still optimistic. Later in the film, Wei Shaolan also sang a few folk songs as required by the filming. It shows a great mother who has experienced hell and the broad mind of a Chinese woman.
Wei Shaolan lives in a house that many people would rather sleep on the street than enter. The dilapidation of the house is unimaginable to people in today's society.
Some Internet celebrities and big Vs are used to "seeing through the essence of things." After seeing this situation, they may say that her optimism and cheerfulness are stress reactions after extreme suffering, otherwise these sufferings would have been destroyed long ago. she. However, they cannot deny that this "stress response" is abnormal, very correct, and something ordinary people cannot do.
Even when recalling a frightening encounter, Wei Shaolan just recounted it calmly as if recalling a normal incident. It is only when she recalls her husband scolding her because of her bad mood that she sheds tears of grievance.
โs son Luo Shanxue was also 68 years old when the photo was taken. When he was young, his peers called him a "Japanese kid" and refused to play with him. When he grew up, Luo Shanxue also had no friends or a wife because of his "famous reputation." As he grew older, Luo Shanxue gradually learned to escape from the discrimination and developed a withdrawn character.
Luo Shanxue is unfortunate to have come into this world with such an identity; Luo Shanxue is extremely lucky to have a mother like Wei Shaolan. In the film, he uses his own words to question the world, and also expresses his good intention to stay away from life.
In the video, the mother and son do not talk to each other. They also work on their own "politics" in life. They cook and eat separately. Wei Shaolan ate the cheapest cabbage bought with the subsistence allowance, and Luo Shanxue ate rice without vegetables. Mother Wei Shaolan talks about living to see the world, and son Luo Shanxue talks about the sorrows of life.
After Wei Shaolan's husband passed away, the other children started their own families and started businesses. This is not mentioned in the film, perhaps implying that the children did not accept their mother's experience. Only Luo Shanxue and Wei Shaolan were left living under the same roof. The mother and son got along "relatively silently", making Wei Shaolan feel even more lonely.
Even this life of endless loneliness did not destroy Wei Shaolan's optimism. Through the film, attentive people will find that Wei Shaolan smiles from the bottom of her heart when she talks about happiness, and her heart is filled with a belief in life. This is the simplest, simplest and most direct belief in the world: as long as you live. Wei Shaolan even remembered the folk song he learned from the cowherd grandfather in the next village when he was young, and hummed it softly. This folk song was adapted into the ending theme of the sequel "Twenty-Two". Probably, these lyrics are Wei Shaolan's attitude towards life, towards suffering, and towards himself. Excerpt from the lyrics of
: The sun comes out a little red, shining into the sky of my sister's room. The higher the sky, the better. I only worry about the short life, not the poverty. It rains in the sky and the road is slippery. I fall by myself and climb by myself. I worry about myself and solve it by myself. , I shed tears and wiped them dry...I didnโt believe you when you said it was difficult for me. It is true when I said it was difficult for me. You have a bungalow to live in, but I live in a bitter gourd shed...
When filming "Thirty Two", Wei Shaolan every I have to go to the countryside every month to receive a minimum living allowance of 30 yuan. In 2013, the National Bureau of Statistics announced that the average annual salary of on-the-job employees was more than 50,000 yuan. In other words, the average person's income in three days is equivalent to Wei Shaolan's subsistence allowance for one year. In other words, what the average person spends on eating for three days is enough to feed Wei Shaolan for a year.
Life did not give Wei Shaolan any good looks. Wei Shaolan did not have to endure all the hardships and get justice, and all the external care was just accidental. Life only cares about moving forward. It is either cruel to Wei Shaolan, or it completely forgets that there is such a tortured and tortured people who have to go through a lifetime of hardship. Faced with such a life, Wei Shaolan did not blame or complain about anything. On the contrary, Wei Shaolan still laughs from time to time.
Wei Shaolan has experienced the most hurtful, painful and painful things in the world. If a person wants to let the pain become a thing of the past and face life with renewed vigor, he needs to go through several or many heartbreaking self-healing processes before he can achieve this. Those sorrows will not reappear in dreams. This process can only be endured and endured for a long time by oneself, and no one else can help. There is no way of knowing how Wei Shaolan went through such a process and how long it took him to smile in front of the camera and from the bottom of his heart.
Luo Shanxue also learned to sweep away the haze in his heart during the filming process and abandon the "big mountain" he was carrying. He said: These are all the faults of the Japanese, I am Chinese, and so on.
The film "Thirty-Two" is about 97-year-old Wei Shaolan and 68-year-old Luo Shanxue, a mother and son who want to get out of the double shadow of history and life. At least, they are trying hard to walk.
The film "Twenty-Two" is about director Guo Ke facing a reality: there are only 22 "comfort women" left in the world. Guo Ke once again took up the camera to record the lives of these victims and what they said. Although there are slight discrepancies between the information obtained by Guo Ke and the actual situation, it does not prevent the film from becoming a successful documentary that touches people's hearts.
"Thirty-Two" and "Twenty-Two" directed by Guo Ke
According to the "China Comfort Women Issue Research Center", there are still 14 "comfort women" alive in 2022.
director Guo Ke promised: "All proceeds from the film will be donated." After the film was released, Guo Ke made money. Guo Ke fulfilled his promise and donated 4 million of the proceeds. Also donating was the film's sponsor, actress Zhang Xinyi. After she recovered her funding, she also donated the full amount.
Before filming, Guo Ke visited these 22 survivors and finally selected four as the narrators of the film: Mao Yinmei (Hubei), Lin Ailan (Hainan), Li Meijin (Hainan) and Li Ailian (Shanxi) ). In the
video, there are also interviews with other elderly people. When reminiscing, the sentence they often use at the end is: "No more talking", and the camera will silently move away at this time.
We cannot describe their feelings in words. We can only follow their emotions and sink into heart-wrenching sadness, unable to breathe.
The film "Twenty-Two" begins with a simple funeral in the cold winter. The deceased old man was a family member of an anti-Japanese soldier named Chen Lintao. During the Anti-Japanese War, due to betrayal by a traitor, Chen Lintao, a family member of an anti-Japanese warrior, was captured by the Japanese army and put into a "comfort station" where he suffered inhuman treatment. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the old man survived by luck.
The funeral was in winter, after a snowfall, the sky and the earth were completely white, and the vast whiteness was clean, perhaps it was the sadness God sent to the deceased old man.
A Korean recorder appeared in the documentary and found several victims born in South Korea or Chinese Korean in China. He discovered a fact that makes us feel ashamed: the current situation of most of the victims is not good. Even after seeing each other for several years, their lives have not improved at all and they are struggling to survive.
Mao Yinmei, born in South Korea, was brought to China by war and famine, and was raped as a "comfort woman" by the Japanese army. After the war, she survived and stayed in Xiaogan, Hubei. Mao Yinmei found a husband, adopted a daughter, and formed a small family. Today, Mao Yinmei's living condition is considered very good among the surviving elderly people. The name Mao Yinmei came from the fact that she loved Chairman Mao and took his surname from him, so she named herself Yinmei.
The old man recalled that he was abandoned by his mother, taken in by his "mother-in-law", captured by the Japanese army and thrown away because of the famine. Then he said, "I won't say it anymore, I won't say it anymore, I won't feel comfortable saying it."
Mao Yinmei is lucky to have a daughter to take care of her life. The daughter's descendants also live together, enjoying the comfortable life that the victims rarely enjoy. The optimistic old man even sings the famous Korean folk song "Arirang".
Another old man, Lin Ailan from Hainan, was lucky enough to live in a nursing home three years before the shooting. There were people to take care of his food and life, and volunteers came to visit from time to time.Lin Ailan, who had a bad temper, was originally an anti-Japanese warrior. When he recalled the time when he fought against the Japanese during the Anti-Japanese War, the old man was full of passion, and his eyes shone with light, as if the sassy female warrior was back. According to Qi Lian, a deceased anti-Japanese war veteran, once said: Lin Ailan made great contributions to the party, the revolution, and the people. Lin Ailan infiltrated into the Japanese army and stole a large amount of arms to provide to the anti-Japanese war troops.
We know from historical data that in 1939, Japan invaded Hainan Island. 15-year-old Lin Ailan joined the anti-Japanese guerrillas. The following year, Lin Ailan and several female soldiers were unfortunately captured by Japanese soldiers. After Lin Ailan and the others were interrogated, they were sent to the "comfort station" in Calais.
After arriving at the "comfort station", Lin Ailan and several female soldiers were locked in a wooden room and were not allowed to go out all day. Only when the door is opened from the outside can light enter this small room. Lin Ailan and the girls would rather have no light, would rather stay in darkness, and are even afraid of the door that can bring light. Because once the door is opened, it means that another group of ghosts will come in to destroy them.
Lin Ailan and several female soldiers suffered inhuman torture every day, almost without interruption. A Japanese soldier failed to abduct Lin Ailan and found an excuse to break Lin Ailan's legs in the "comfort station", leaving her with a lifelong disability.
More than half a year later, a local old man who was working as a coolie in the Japs camp saw Lin Ailan and several female soldiers dying. He couldn't bear it. One night, while all the Japs were dispatched from the stronghold, they dug a hole in the back wall. Lin Ailan and several female soldiers were killed. Only a female warrior was able to escape.
After the disaster, Lin Ailan's legs were disabled and she could no longer fight. Lin Ailan, who had worked as a nurse, knew that she had lost her fertility. Coupled with the unbearable experience, Lin Ailan chose to comb herself (a lifelong celibate woman).
In 2005, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission awarded Lin Ailan a commemorative medal commemorating the 60th anniversary of the victory of the Chinese People's War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression. There is a lovely plot in the film: Lin Ailan hid the medal so deeply that she couldn't find it, so she thought it had been stolen and spoke angrily. After others helped find it, Lin Ailan breathed a sigh of relief and smiled in her eyes.
The annual rings are spinning, and the old people are gradually withering away.
When these injured old people passed away, they did not wait for justice to come.
Perhaps when all the old people pass away, justice still has not waited.
We do not live in the pain of the past, nor do we live in the hatred of the past, but we will never forget the past and the pain that was inflicted on the elderly and the Chinese nation.
Fortunately, the two films "Thirty-Two" and "Twenty-Two" recorded their lives with the most authentic footage, recorded the past that they personally told, and recorded their brave survival. May the traces of their lives not be forgotten, and may the traces of their lives not be erased by time.
