Red Cherry (1995)

Charming and brutal

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Luckily I've read memoir of Zhu Min.She was born in Moscow in 1926, after a month, her father Zhu De(the commander in chief of PLA) was ordered back to China to fight for KMT Government against Peking Government, and never have seen each other until 1940. In her childhood, she could only meet her father in the street -- where Zhu De's pictures were on the Wanted.In 1941 she arrived U.S.S.R. for studies, but after six months, the fifteen year old girl was captured by German soldiers, and had been sent to a concentration camp in East Prussia. During the one week terrible death-march, suffering disease , she could barely believe that she was alive. The fate was cruel, be Beaten, slashed by German solider was her life in that period, while witnessing many deaths --to be buried alive, gassed and genocide to Russian and Jewish people, and received a bad treatment from a German doctor, who cut off a bossing from her neck without applying any anesthetic nor disinfect.During the 3.5 year life in the camp she lost her ability of speaking couldn't speak too much Russian, German, even Chinese, and didn't grow up.-----------------And by the way, there's another boy of CCP's high rank leader was killed at that time, too.the execution by chopping in two parts was a normal phenomenon in the KMT era for terrorizing the communists. ------------Whatever, many scenes weren't happen in one person, but it took place, and the reality was more horrible than the movie. I can tell you this film is a mixed truth, except the tattoo.

The main drawbacks of this film are that it lacks coherence (there is a feel like the films has been haphazardly put together), the war effects are badly done, and the German soldiers are the same boring soldiers you see in just about any WWII film-- i.e., they are just plain evil. No doubt there was much inane and brutal violence from the Germans, but one would be led to believe in this film that the Russian soldiers and the children of the international proletariat are saints to the trigger happy Germans. The problem with the action sequences is that the editing comes across as awkward. On the other hand the acting is well played and the story is fairly interesting. They managed to get some impressive scenes in Belarus at a monastery. It's worth a watch if you are interested in WWII, Russia, or China.

"Red Cherry" follows a pubescent Chinese girl, ChuChu, and boy, Luo Xiaoman, from their prewar children's camp in Russia through WWII as they become de facto orphans caught up in the horrors of war. The film leapfrogs through time and bounces back and forth between the two kids, who become separated, making for a herky-jerky flow while giving us peek-a-boo glimpses of how they are coping against a backdrop of the deprivation and tragedy that is war. On the upside, the film is a well acted, engaging, evocative drama. On the downside, the DVD I watched had only mediocre video quality and poor, near monochrome, color. Recommended only for foreign film buffs into war dramas. (B)Note - This is not the best movie ever made, it is not propaganda, and it is not seen through the eyes of the child.

There is no real plot to speak of. It is mostly just some of the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of children. However, the visuals, acting and direction draws you in and never lets you go until the end. The movie makes its characters so sympathetic, that you almost ignore the political propaganda and concentrate entirely on their plight. War never looked so good, or more horrific.If you are turned off by under aged nudity and child abuse, you probably would want to avoid this movie, however, you would be missing the cinematic experience of this or any lifetime.