War Epic 'The Battle at Lake Changjin' Crosses $750M at the China Box Office

‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ rages on. The Chinese war epic earned $73 million over the weekend, taking its China box-office total to $768.8 million – a phenomenal sum unmatched by any Hollywood film released since the start of the Covid pandemic. 

Released in China on September 30, the blockbuster follows a group of Chinese soldiers – actually, Chinese People’s Volunteers – during the Korean War (1950-53) as they try to beat back US and allied forces from what is now China's border with North Korea, despite freezing conditions and staggering odds. 

Of course, Western media paints it as a propaganda feature film. But we all know it's a case of sour grapes.

Besides, I can name many US movies that can just as easily be labelled propaganda flicks too. Examples include ‘The Green Berets’ (1968), ‘The Deer Hunter’ (1978), ‘Act of Valor’ (2012) and ‘Lone Survivor’ (2013).

And who can forget ‘Black Hawk Down’ (2001), Ridley Scott's dramatisation of the Battle of Mogadishu? It’s a movie about US Army Rangers under siege in Mogadishu, Somalia in October 1993. 

Here, you get to see America’s romanticized view of war, its soldiers die in slow-motion, accompanied by mournful strings or piano music while Somalis just fly into the air, explode and disappear. 

And the sore point for us Malaysians – we didn’t even get a mention. In fact, we were written out altogether. 

It’s a movie that pits noble, civilising white heroes against faceless, savage black villains – and, ignoring the Malaysian and Pakistani soldiers who were also in the thick of the action to save American lives! Indeed, its interpretation of history is both one-sided and crude. 

Anyway, ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ is now China’s second-biggest movie of 2021, trailing only the Lunar New Year comedy hit ‘Hi, Mom’ ($821 million). In the all-time China box office charts, the war film now ranks third, in US dollar terms, behind ‘Wolf Warrior 2’ ($854 million) and ‘Hi, Mom’. 

Chinese ticket app Maoyan now forecast ‘The Battle at Lake Changjin’ to finish its run at second place in the record books with a total gross of $843 million. 

Furthermore, you should know that this Chinese war movie is from real history!