A grandma crashes a puppet state's birthday party and accidentally fixes capitalism.
Old lady from the countryside travels to the bustling city of Xinjing to join her children in the "10th Anniversary Celebration of the Founding of Manchukuo", and then solves the conflicts within the family.
Production
Xinjing as character—fake capital, real streets.
Acting
Ling Yuan's grandma: chaos agent in pearls.
Writing
Family drama smuggled into state pageantry.
Director
Xinzhai Wang
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Manchukuo's 1932-1945 existence was a Japanese construct; 'Xinjing' was colonial urban planning as propaganda. The film's 1942 release means it premiered as the Pacific War turned.
Director Wang Xinzhai's 'Manchurian films' often used family narratives to naturalize state ideology—this may be his most nakedly symbolic.
JP
