Purple Sunset
| Purple Sunset | |
|---|---|
| Traditional | 紫日 |
| Simplified | 紫日 |
| Mandarin | Zĭrì |
| Directed by | Feng Xiaoning |
| Written by | Feng Xiaoning |
| Starring |
Fu Dalong Chie Maeda Anna Dzenilalova |
| Music by | Li Ge |
| Cinematography | Feng Xiaoning |
| Edited by | Yan Jianbin |
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Release date
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Running time
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106 minutes |
| Language |
Mandarin Russian Japanese |
Purple Sunset (Chinese: 紫日; pinyin: Zĭrì) is a 2001 Chinese film written and directed by Feng Xiaoning. Feng also acted as the film's cinematographer.
Purple Sunset is an anti-war film set in August 1945, at the time when the Japanese were in the throes of defeat during World War II and losing control of mainland China. The film won Best Special Effects at the Huabiao Awards and Best Cinematography at the Golden Rooster Award. It was also voted Best Feature by the audience during the 2001 Hawaii International Film Festival. Feng considered it the last of his "War and Peace" (战争与和平) trilogy, preceded by Red River Valley (1997), and Lovers' Grief over the Yellow River (1999).
The film begins with a flashback of an elderly Chinese man Yang in 2000 who is interviewed and who begins reminiscing about the Second Sino-Japanese War, prompted on by a journalist. He grasps an old okiagari-koboshi musical doll which brings his memories back to August 1945, near the end of the war.
In 1945 Yang, a Hebei peasant in his 30s, was captured by Japanese imperial soldiers, and was brought to the Daxing'anling area near Manchuria (bordering the Soviet Union) after the Japanese slaughtered his aged mother. He was put in a firing squad to be executed. The firing killed everyone in line but Yang. As the Japanese soldiers reloaded their machine gun, a Soviet T-34 tank knocked over the wall against which the captives were lined. Yang was the sole survivor and was put under the charge of Nadja, a young female Soviet lieutenant and her comrades. Nadja was tasked with escorting Yang to headquarters, but their truck driver took a wrong turn and strayed into Japanese lines. Most of the occupants of the truck were killed in the ensuing skirmish but Nadja, a Soviet tank soldier and Yang escaped into a forested area.
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