‘Eternal Spring Review: An Affecting, PartAnimated Reckoning With Religious Persecution In China
On March 5, 2002, an unprecedented event occurred when the people of Changchun, in northeastern China, settled into the evening. For thousands of families tuning into any of eight state-run cable television channels, the continuous broadcast is followed by a pre-recorded video promoting the banned and widely abused spiritual practice known as Falun Gong. These events and their bloody aftermath are brought to life, partly in standard live-action documentary segments and partly in thrilling animated sequences, in Jason Loftus's Mandarin Canadian nominee at the International Film Oscars, Eternal Spring.
More personal than political, the film is brought to life through the eyes and art of the famous comedian Daxiong, who was born in Changchun, as the founder of the movement and thus of Falun Gong itself. Daxiong had to flee to Canada in a new phase of the trial after taking the TV (although he played no part in it), arguing the wisdom of the kidnapping. As an admirer of Falun Gong, he sympathized with the motives, but also objected to the more oppressive focus of deception on a regime that, in his words, "would kill a thousand people just to get what's right." .
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And so, after a brilliant and stunning 3D animation opening where the kidnappers are relentlessly chased through the buildings and alleys of downtown Changchun, the film's biggest arc is when Daxiong comes to grips with the conditions of his exile. known These meetings, where Daxiong always brings a notebook to capture special memories of the moment (and it's great to see his pen and ink skills in action), form the basis of the film's animated sections. And what emerges is less of a legendary heist movie worthy of a Star Wars comic (like the 2011 Boba Fett adventure comic Daxiong), where it remains a team of extravagant idealists with unconventional names and secrets to hide defeating an evil empire with disastrous consequences.
In keeping with Daxiong's comedic sensibilities, "Eternal Spring" doesn't dwell too much on shades of gray, stemming from his childhood fascination with the frontier superheroes surrounding 12th-century Chinese general Yu Fei. "Big Truck", a former criminal who reformed by adopting Falun Gong, a key member of the recruitment team, is portrayed as a gentle giant who was tortured for the job, while Liang Zhenxing, the mastermind, is the man who died in 2010, after a long period of severe torture in prison, the kidnapper was far from holy. Daxiong's encounter with "Mr. White," the only real kidnapper who escaped from China after his release from prison, lends greater emotional power to the ominous implication of the fate of the captured kidnappers. Mr. now lives in South Korea. White's shocking testimony and being forced to sign the revocation of his conviction under the threat of more torture was very moving. As Daxiong stares at his laptop screen, the artist sketches a scene from his childhood in Changchun, and the two men are suddenly united by nostalgia for an innocent place, city, and state they never want to return to. again. . . .
While such real-life encounters are very effective, they also highlight the film's shortcomings in the real world. While other popular animated films like Waltz with Bashir and The Run tell their narratives in an animated medium, Eternal Spring's brightly illustrated sections fall less convincingly into the metatextual structure of a classic live-action documentary. Against this background, the film's deliberate interest in what aspects of the Falun Gong movement are least acceptable becomes painfully clear. There is no mention of his connection to the pro-Trump media The Epoch Times, known as a den of conspiratorial disinformation for the far right, and there is a strange myopia, to say the least, about the tenets of Falun Gong spirituality itself. . Admirable slogans for truth and mercy.
The countless human rights violations committed by the CCP against Falun Gong practitioners cannot be even partially excused. But to avoid such problems Eternal Spring, however skillfully written, does not feel complete as an account of an event with wider and more complex implications than can easily be contained within any complex outline. Within the narrow confines of a talented artist's appreciation of his homeland's painful recent history, it remains an impressive work not only for the dark events it dramatically reinvents, but also for its glimpse into another side of his hometown, Daxiong. people still like to remember. . . In Changchun - which literally translates to "eternal spring" - more extravagant activities, such as helium-inflated balloons in the streets or leaflets waving like flowers, show that even in the most repressive environments, the hope of religious freedom springs eternal.
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