China's depiction of US forces in 2021's 'The Battle for Lake Changjin'

American accents 10/10

[Hazel-xlin]

macarthur enters like a fucking metal gear solid villain lmao

[elitecoder]

I like how they showed the Army and Marines working closely with each other

[nordlandskaka]

- Mom, can we have American English?
- We have American English at home.
American English at home:

[rickwong]

Feels like a cutscene from Japanese video games that have America in it. Metal Gear Solid of course being the first in the mind.

[legowardude]

I like how, despite being a Chinese movie, it makes an American viewer feel so patriotic.

[robzonefire]

This makes me patriotic and I'm not even an American

[bruh-bnni]

bro china made douglas macarthur look like some supervillain. they legit made him cooler than the US ever did in any of their movies

[symphony_in_mm]

Not gonna lie, this is surprisingly good.

Its refreshing to see the depiction of an enemy force as a powerful/competent and legitimately dangerous opponent to the protagonist.

[ernestw]

As an American, I'm quite flattered over how they portrayed US forces; supposedly depicting them as an evil invading imperialists, but they actually made them into more cool, tough, and intimidating, showing off navy barrage, convoys of tanks and armours, helmets, technology, and air force which was the whole point; Americans were tougher than Japanese, Kuomintang, and South Koreans to beat and technologically superior. That depiction is quite fair and more accurate, humanizing the American soldiers, unlike old Chinese Korean War movies like Battle of Shanganling Mountain where they were depicted as imperialist monsters and cowards. The only thing that looks off of these Americans are the voices, some don't sounded American. MacArthur sounds fine but Liam Nesson did good job potraying him in Operation Chromite. One soldier mentioned about beating Japanese in WW2 and "their legacy", is probably meant to tell Chinese audience that US and China were allies during that time and Korean War is where US is an enemy and film's antagonist.

I like how they don't straight telling the audience the fact that North Korea invaded South Korea, but gave them an implication by MacArthur's line "We will take Seoul back!", indicating their enemy took over Seoul which is occupied by North Koreans. They are did make the conflict accurate, but in fact, China rather not say over who started the war, but some say US started it, just like North Korea's history book. It is a propaganda, but it's a good movie and some may be written for dramatic fictional purpose just like Black Hawk Down. I'm going to pretend that Operation Chromite, Lake Changjin, and Devotion are in the same universe for Incheon Landing and Chosin Reservoir.

Also, I learned that not many Chinese audience were impressed by the movie, according to the friend of mine, considering over what's going on currently in the Korean peninsula. I'm pretty sure few or some Chinese fans for K-Pop might appreciate MacArthur and Americans saving South Korea because without them, there'll be no K-Pop or its influence.

Anyways, this movie is very impressive and it's great. Curious what American veterans think of this.

[ItsDatCajunStuff]

American technology really is incredible. They were communicating with text-to-speech software way back then. Amazing.

[autokrator_]

The English dialogue sounds like something you’d hear in a dream. Considering this is the most expensive Chinese film ever produced, I don't know how they could've gotten it so wrong.

[yohankim]

The reason why the 'Americans' in this film sound ridiculous is because most of these actors aren't even American.

[henryshin]

Their portrayal of MacArthur being a larger than life character and his dismissive attitude aga the authority of commander and chief at that time(President Harry Truman) is actually quite accurate.

[hockseng]

i love metal gear solid bad guy Macarthur, dude was a badass

[sleepyboi]

For a Chinese movie it makes the Americans look badass

[KevinHuangPhasorQuantaG]

4:01 It is so ironic how in this film the enemy is a country that helped China defeat Japan in WW2.

[LostInForums]

One thing to note here is the sympathetic portrayal of Oliver P. Smith, who basically serves as the "honorable enemy" character throughout the film and is the only American that openly expresses doubts and sympathy to the Chines compared to the overconfidence of McArthur and the other commanders. This *might* have some historical grounds as Smith was one of the more cautious commanders of the battle who refused to blindly rush to cross the Yalu river and wound up saving many marines because of his caution and his leadership under fire is credited as saving his division from destruction.

Later on in the film, one of the last American scenes is Smith and his marines stumbling into a Chinese foxhole filled with dead soldiers who had frozen to death attempting to hold the position from retreating American forces. Smith then salutes the fallen men out of respect and remarks that it was down to the sheer determination and grit of his enemy that they were able to be beaten back at all. It's such an unusually positive and sympathetic portrayal of an antagonist in a war film that I honestly can't remember anything comparable in a Hollywood production besides maybe the Cuban commander in Red Dawn.

[DarkArtistKaiser]

I can't help but notice the nonexistance presence of the North Korean army and such. Is that just cause of the scenes used or did they really just leave them out of the movie like that?

[EduardoDiscaciate]

This is how every foreigner feels like when their country is depicted in Hollywood. Source: me

[matro]

1:59 Despite what everyone is saying about the American voices, I really like this line delivery.