GR: College, Adult, A.P. |
RT: 52 Min. |
Titles: 1 |
$225.00
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A film by LEE Li-Saho
As the Pacific War ends with the capitulation of Japan in 1945, large territories occupied until then by the Japanese Imperial forces are liberated, among them Korea, Formosa (now Taiwan) and large parts of Southern China. The latter will see the emergence of a violent civil war between the Nationalists and the Communists, with Mao Zedong’s Red Army on the one hand, and the Kuomintang of Chiang Kai-shek on the other. History will teach us that Mao’s army was victorious, and the Nationalists fled to the island of Formosa.
But history books will not mention the fate of the 3rd or the 5th Army of the nationalist forces. While retreating to Taiwan, Chiang Kai-shek ordered these two armies to cross the Chinese border into Thailand and Burma, and wait for the order to "retake the mainland". But the order never came, and Chiang Kai-shek’s "Lost Army", soldiers, arms and equipment included, stays there to this day. Composed by moving interviews with officers and ordinary soldiers, accompanied by never seen archival footage, this film turns us into witnesses of a weird, generation-long process of combatants needing to hide in order to exist. The documentary also tackles the problem of the descendant’s future: China denies their existence, and as stateless children, their choice is cruelly limited to stay in exile, or to “return" home to Taiwan, a country they have never seen.