The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021)
I went on a bit of a research expedition and learned that Mao’s eldest son, Mao Anying, who was killed in 1950 by a US bomber during the Korean War briefly depicted in the movie, studied in Moscow, petitioned Stalin to send him to the front during the WW2, got his wish, and served as an artillery officer, during the final Battle of Berlin including. Also had no idea Mao had 10 children lol
the american? actors in that movie were soooo bad. it hurt to watch.
yeah the american actors were very b-movie level, the cineese ones were better i feel, which would make sense. but also, having watched a bunch of expensive chinese movies now, i gotta give it to them: if there is an american in the movie they hire an american and they speak proper english, if theres a russian–same. none of that broken accent, dubbing, or straight up gibberish
id prefer a good actor with a strange affect to an authentic-but-awful american tbh.
Some of the lower effort Sino-Japanese war dramas that depict the Americans giving air support to China just have random white people talk vaguely military speak and then the subtitles are completely different. They can’t get away with it much now because English proficiency in China is a lot more common, but it wouldn’t be unusual 10 or 15 years ago to have the pilot say random shit like “10-4 florida alligators roast beef” the subtitles in Chinese are just like “We must coordinate the bombing runs along the mountain pass”
i’d love to see a chinese actor playing a stereotypical white american, that’d be amazing on so many levels. but the consequences are unpredictable. might tank a movie, might make it even more popular because of the lolz and giggles factor.