2000 · war · comedy · drama
Devils on the Doorstep
Directed by Jiang Wen2h 19m2000
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?
Our read: Devils on the Doorstep (2000) reads as a sombre, steady, inventive war · comedy · drama entry — extreme in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, measured in temperature, nihilistic in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Sombre, steady, extreme war / comedy, inventive in texture. Nihilistic, mid-stakes, measured.
- sombre
- intense
- bleak
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