In the hearts of many people, director Jiang Digui is "Spielberg of South Korea". At that time, his "Life and Death Spy Change" and "Taiji Flag Flying" not only rewrote a new record for the box office of Korean commercial films, but also made Kang Digui a first-line director of Korean commercial films.
After making two films, Jiang Digui directed the world war II film "Landing Day" with a more ambitious vision and pattern. The film was almost double the cost of making Tai Chi Flag Flying. The war scenes in films such as Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan and Battle of Stalingrad burn a lot of money. And Jiang Digui's purpose is to make a war blockbuster that can surpass Hollywood.
In addition, the biggest selling point of this movie that year was the joining of Fan Bingbing.
However, her role in the film is not really heavy. Fan Bingbing played a female sniper who vowed to resist the Japanese invaders to the death, but the film did not explain her identity, her biggest role was to lay down a bomber for Zhang Dongjian, and then she "died of incense", which was basically a vase role.
It is said that the film was inspired by a historical photograph. Many Koreans had joined the Japanese Kwantung Army, became prisoners of the Soviet Army during the Sino-Soviet border conflict in 1939, and were later incorporated into the Soviet Red Army and began to serve in the Soviet Army.
Later, the German invasion of the Soviet Union captured them, so that they entered the German army and were thrown into the Atlantic Defense Line. Finally, in June 1944, during the Allied landings in Normandy, he was captured by the Americans.
And "Landing Day" tells the story of "their" legendary experience.
However, under the treatment of Jiang Digui, "Landing Day" became a story about the gradual recovery of human nature in the war.
The film tells the story of the Japanese general's grandson Tatsuo Hasegawa (Played by Oda Chejang) and the poor son of North Korea, Kim Joon-sik (Jang Dong-jin), who repeatedly put on different military uniforms and fought for different countries. After the Battle of Nomenkan, the Battle of Stalingrad, and the Battle of Normandy, they tried to escape and return to their hometown, but they still could not get rid of the trickery of fate.
"Landing Day" not only follows the brotherhood of life and death in "Taiji Flag Flying", but also has a comprehensive upgrade of the war scene, but after the release of this film, it seems that many viewers do not buy it, and Jiang Digui is scolded as a dog. In China, it has almost received one-sided bad reviews.
To this end, some film critics have commented on this:
Everyone in the play seems to have become a reference to some kind of spirit, Oda Chejang represents Bushido, Fan Bingbing achieves the spirit of anti-Japanese resistance, and Zhang Dongjian depicts the humanity of light. The ego is blindly suppressed by the big self, the individual is completely sacrificed in the intention, and the person is left with only the capital "person", without flesh and blood, desire and inner turmoil. This approach of putting intentions above all else is undoubtedly blunt and hypocritical, so although the film's creativity is good and the starting point is high, it is impossible to connect the dots into a face, persuade and move the audience, and it is regrettable.
Even in South Korea, the film was badly criticized, and the box office results were not ideal. Talking about the reasons for the failure of the film, Jiang Digui once said: "I have thought about all aspects of this, I have thought about the way this film is produced, the date of release, the date of release, the stage; I do not have an accurate answer to the results of the box office, but I have considered it.
The author believes that as a two-hour war blockbuster, the film is vague in the anti-war level and the core proposition conveyed. The creator did not give the characters too many inner struggles and entanglements, and the philosophy of linking "running" and war is even more ridiculous, but it is only a full desire to express the continuation of the character's spirit, so the film can only carefully calculate the emotional ups and downs that belong to commercial films to bring to the audience, but bring out a most old-fashioned proposition - unloading armor and returning to the field.
Perhaps "The Day of Landing" was criticized too badly, so far, Jiang Digui has not made another film of the same genre. It seems that it is not an easy task to make a war film that meets the tastes of audiences in all countries.