THE CLIFF WALKERS

China, 2021, 125 minutes, Colour.

Zhang Li, Yu Hewei, Zhu Yahwen.

Directed by Zhang Yimou.

In recent decades the Chinese film industry has produced a great number of films about the experience of China in the 1930s, the invasion by the Japanese and their occupation, harsh government, installation of puppet local authorities, atrocities and executions, leading up to such events as the siege of Nanking and the outbreak of World War II. This is acknowledged at the beginning of this film – and, at the end, there is an encouragement for the Revolution.

This film is set in 1931, winter, many of the sequences with snow falling. Four Chinese who have been undergoing training in Russia are parachuted in for a mission, to find an escapee from a Japanese torture camp and get him over the border so that the world can discover what the Japanese are doing.

The four, two men, two women, decide to go in pairs, taking suicide tablets with them.

With the espionage dimension of the screenplay, audiences have to pay quite a deal of attention, the journeys of the two pairs of spies, the local commander and his assistants, the intricacies of infiltration, cover, betrayals.

It is interesting to look at some of the details of Chinese life at the time, an extensive ride in a train, the station and railyards, a city and its streets (often at night, dark alleys, car chases and crashes), the bright neon lights, especially for the local cinema, Cinema Asia (where Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush is screening and we are treated to some glimpses of its most famous scene, Charlie and his shoes), the Romanian embassy and its lavish interiors.

The characters of the four spies gradually emerge, Zhang, the leader, along with the young woman, travelling by train, accosted, framed by the authorities, a safe house, but Zhang arrested and tortured, physically and with psychedelic drugs.

There is drama with a grim sequence initially of prisoners lined up and casually shot, one tortured and pressurised into betraying the other members of the group. The commander is bullish and relentless. However, gradually one of his closest assistance is revealed as being part of the operation. This leads to tension, visiting the cinema, the revealing of the plan, the involvement of the Romanian embassy, betrayal, pursuits, suicide pills…

There is some relief at the end, some moments of sentiment and happiness and hardened viewers and reviewers might be wondering what the director is up to, indulging in feelings. However, during the final credits, there is a sequence where no doubt is left about espionage, betrayals, retribution.

Director, Zhang Yimou, has been making some key Chinese films for over 30 years, beautiful historic dramas in the 1990s, some very personal stories also, then a move into action features, history, martial arts – and his being the director of the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games.

1. The history of China? The 1930s? The Japanese invasion and occupation? Puppet governments, resistance? Training in Communist Russia, espionage?
2. The work of the director, the long career, his ability with personal stories, historical stories, warfare, action spectacle?
3. A patriotic film? Encouragement of the Revolution?
4. The background, the occupation, the antagonism between Japanese and Chinese, the Japanese domination, imprisonment, torture camps, executions? Chinese society in the 1930s? The towns, buildings and offices, the cinema (and The Gold Rush with an excerpt of the famous shoe seen)? Shops, the neon lighting? The trains, the carriages, stations? The Romanian embassy and its interiors? The night sequences, the dark, the streets, the car pursuits and crashes?
5. The season, so many sequences with snow falling, the cold? The musical score?
6. The group, in the snow, coming from Russia, the suicide tablets, their deciding to separate?
7. The complexity of the group arriving, splitting, their destination in the town, the Operation, the escape prisoner from the camp, to identify him, rescue him, get him over the border, to alert world opinion about the Japanese prisons and treatment?
8. The delineation of each of the four characters, the men, the women? The older couple, the relationship, their children remaining in China, later seeing the boy begging and running with the money, and the children finally reconciled with their mother?
9. The young woman, travelling on the train, separated from Zhang, her continuing on, shrewdness, the pursuit in the rail yards, evading capture, guns and shooting? Her getting to the safe house? In the town, the code messages, and memorising them, going to the cinema?
10. Zhang, his leadership, control, in the train, the interview with the official, the couple, their documents, the official substituting false documents. the attempted arrest?
11. His continued activities, his being taken, the details of the torture, electric shock, the psychedelic drugs? His attempted escape, the assistance of Zhou, the pin and the handcuffs, the car? The confrontation, his being taken, his death?
12. Zhou, long years on the staff with the commander, Communist, spy, his helping the group, his being present and witnessing the torture? His help, and Jin as his assistant, the use of his car, defending him to the commander, yet his being set up as a scapegoat? (Jin, suspicions, in the shootout, the gun, his being arrested, tortured, executed?)
13. The commander, his manner, the callous staff, enjoying the torture, the executions and the alcohol and spraying the victims? Casually shooting them?
14. The businessman, about to be killed, spared, his talking, present with the commander, going into action, the betrayal?
15. The codes, the group in the safe house, the drugs, pretence, misinformation? The woman and the food poisoning?
16. The cinema, Zhou ticking the screening time, checking Jin, the young woman seeing it, going to the cinema, getting the orders from Zhou?
17. The irony that the code was for a later rendezvous, going to the Romanian embassy, the woman, walking through, the car, the pursuits, the crash and in the street, her escape? Her accomplice, the car, the embassy, the pursuit, the confrontation with the issue, the guns, ammunition, his taking the poison tablet?
18. Zhou, under suspicion, being held, released, embraced? Maintaining his cover?
19. Sentiment at the end, bringing the children to the mother, Zhou and the young girl watching, the mother and the reconciliation?
20. The credits sequence, the jolt to the sentiment with mother and children, Zhou and the vicious wrangling of the traitor in the car?
21. The overall impact, some understanding of Chinese history, the 1930s, and the relevance to 21^st-century China?