Devils on the Doorstep

Release date: 2001-10-26
Votes: 169
Genres: Drama, War
During the Japanese occupation of China, two prisoners are dumped in a peasant's home in a small town. The owner is bullied into keeping the prisoners until the next New Year, at which time they will be collected. The village leaders convene to interrogate the prisoners. The townspeople then struggle to accommodate the prisoners. One is a bellicose Japanese nationalist, the other a nervous translator. Will the townspeople manage to keep the prisoners until the New Year?
Reviews

badelf
A fantastic anti-war narrative by Jiang Wen that clocks in at 140 minutes and is so well-paced that it feels like half that time. The comedic overtone that permeates the movie serves to provide comic relief and underscore the strong anti-war, anti-nationalist message.
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