China Hopes Sequel to Anti-U.S. Korean War Propaganda Blockbuster Will 'Smash Theaters'

Chinese state media on Thursday giddily hailed the arrival of Watergate Bridge, the hastily-filmed sequel to China’s Korean War propaganda film The Battle at Lake Changjin.

In a “news” article that would make the vaudevillian hucksters of Hollywood’s Golden Age blush, the Communist Party’s Global Times predicted the new film would “smash theaters” and “crown the box office” during the Lunar New Year holiday season.

Watergate Bridge actually has some competition for fans of big-budget Communist history revisionism, because another film covering the same period called Snipers is opening as well. The latter project was helmed by famed director Zhang Yimou, who is also in charge of the opening ceremonies for the Beijing Winter Olympics.

Snipers, as the Global Times described it, “picks up a true story of a Chinese sniper defeating American enemies in the War.” 

Snipers promotional poster (Enlight Media)

Watergate Bridge follows the same “Chinese People’s Volunteers” unit from The Battle at Lake Changjin as it fights for control of “a crucial bridge on the retreat route of American troops.”

The Global Times fought a brief and comical struggle with itself to explain why it is a complete coincidence that nationalist propaganda films about the Korean War (which the Communist Party calls “The War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea,” even though China’s involvement condemned half of Korea to live under a psychotic dictatorship and the other half to live in fear) are flooding theaters during the busy spring holiday.

The article then trotted out some Communist Party “film critics” to gush that both films are guaranteed to be artistic and financial triumphs, although The Battle at Lake Changjin’s massive box office lead-in suggests Watergate Bridge will make more money. Watergate Bridge has supposedly racked up $15.82 million in presales already.

On the other hand, one critic wondered if holiday audiences were eager to sit through a 149-minute war movie during the Lunar New Year holiday, while Zhang Yimou’s competing film might benefit from the Olympic buzz around the director, and some of the other competing films scheduled for holiday release are breezy comedies and cartoons that might be more appealing to family audiences.

It is hard to quantify the box-office benefits of an authoritarian regime strongly hinting to moviegoers that buying tickets to a nationalist extravaganza is their patriotic duty. The Communist Party inflated box-office returns for The Battle at Lake Changjin by making sure no other movies were playing in some theaters. Audience members were encouraged to chew on frozen potatoes to get the full experience of the scrappy, starving Chinese soldiers who defeated arrogant, overfed American troops.

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