Devils On The Doorstep Analysis

During the first half of the 20th century, the Japanese empire was at the peak of its power. Starting form 1910 up until 1945, the end WWII, Korea was being held by Japan as a colony. During this time, Japan and China entered The Second Sino-Japanese War that stared in 1937 and ended with Japanese surrender in 1945. These Japanese actions have had such an impactful effect on the people that it hurt, that films, such as Devils on the Door step and The Handmaiden, have even contemporary films express negative emotions to the long-lasting effects of the Japanese empire.

The Chinese film Devils on the Doorstep directed by Jiang Wen is a quintessential example of postmodern humor and the use of satire to point out political issue. Wen essentially takes the traumatic events of WWII between Japan and China and turns them into dark jokes. The film seems to propagate stereotypes throughout the film like Chinese referring to Japanese as devils and saying that they sound angry all the time and Japanese people referring to Chinese as simpletons. However, it then downplays Chinese, Japanese social tension in scenes like the interrogation of Dong and Hanaya take tragic events like Japanese killing and

Unlike most like the tadeonal approaches, that depict Korea as being saved by Japan by propagating its industrialization, this film reverses the roles of this relationship and Korea being depicted as the saviors of Japan. Throughout the film we see that Lady Hideko is essentially being held captive by her Korean Uncle. She essentially thinks she was no purpose of living because of her autocratic uncle. It is only after she meets Sook-hee, a Korean peasan and thief, and falls in love with her that she finds purpose, happiness and freedom. Thus, Can-wook reverses the roles of Korea and Japan, with Japan being depicted as victims and needing saving thorough the character