User Reviews

I would have given this film a 10, but what is disturbing is that the claims that it was based on a true story are only partly true. The film was based on the true story of Zhu De's ??? daughter Zhu Min ????, who went to the Soviet International Children's School at the age of 14. The film crew had contacted her and obtained her consent when making the film, although the most horrific and most unforgettable part was fictional (and there's the rub). Moreover, her father, Zhu De was not executed in China as a communist before the war. He became an important military figure and later leader in the government. (1954-59) as deputy chairman of the People's Republic of China. He was chairman of the National People's Congress (1959 -67), Communist China's major legislative body, until denounced during the Cultural Revolution . He was restored to his posts in 1971 and died in 1976. From what I understand, it is not unusual in China to call a story "true," despite the facts.

Hong Ying Tao is a brutally true story about atrocities and inhumanity from a child's point of view. Excellent performances highlight. However, this movie does not shy away from the darkest and ugliest side of humans so it's more than a little hard to sit through. Having said that, I feel this is an important film with an important message so suck it up and watch it.

"Red Cherry" follows a pubescent Chinese girl, ChuChu, and boy, Luo Xiaoman, from their prewar children's camp in Russia through WWII as they become de facto orphans caught up in the horrors of war. The film leapfrogs through time and bounces back and forth between the two kids, who become separated, making for a herky-jerky flow while giving us peek-a-boo glimpses of how they are coping against a backdrop of the deprivation and tragedy that is war. On the upside, the film is a well acted, engaging, evocative drama. On the downside, the DVD I watched had only mediocre video quality and poor, near monochrome, color. Recommended only for foreign film buffs into war dramas. (B)

Note - This is not the best movie ever made, it is not propaganda, and it is not seen through the eyes of the child.

I watched Red Cherry for the first time of VHS. I was immediately impressed with the outstanding acting, particularly of the two main characters, but I was a bit bothered by the jumping around from one year to the next. The subtitle quality wasn't great, either, nor were the special FX and production values up to snuff. I bought it on DVD and watched it again, and I liked it considerably better the second time, and it keeps getting better and better every time I watch it. It might take some time to get adjusted to the time jumping and weak (by big bucks Hollywood standards, anyway) special FX and whatnot, but Red Cherry has quickly climbed into my top 25 films of all time, and I've seen quite a few high quality films (Lynch, Bergman, DeSica, Kubrick, Zhang Yimou, Wong Kar-Wei, Polanski, and Kurosawa are some of my favorite filmmakers). I hope to find a higher quality DVD in the future; this film deserves so much more. I'm was really surprised to discover that this film got little recognition outside of China. Too dark, I guess, but Schindler's List was quite grim and was a major hit. Oh, well, just make sure you watch it.

The stars of the film are just perfect, and there are many scenes that are very moving. You fall in love with the main characters right away, and you like them more and more as the story progresses. There were a few scenes that reduced me to tears (scenes with Nadia, the adopted Russian girl and each of the main characters' final scenes), quite an accomplishment, as few films move me that much (Grave of the Fireflies, one of the best films ever made, got me as well). The story is told in an atypical way: the stories of the two main characters are cross-sections of their lives during a 5-year period, and the film jumps to the next year after showing a bit of their current circumstances. Once I got used to it, I didn't mind the format at all. Once I got into the film, the minor technical deficiencies seemed to disappear. Highly, highly recommended.

By the way, I don't agree that there is a lot of propaganda involved in this film. The description of the treatment of Mao revolutionaries isn't exactly complimentary to the Chinese government. They executed revolutionaries by chopping them in two at the waist with a haysickle? Yeah, that really places the Chinese government in a positive light! This story is about children and war, period. And it's a very sad and powerful story.

The main drawbacks of this film are that it lacks coherence (there is a feel like the films has been haphazardly put together), the war effects are badly done, and the German soldiers are the same boring soldiers you see in just about any WWII film-- i.e., they are just plain evil. No doubt there was much inane and brutal violence from the Germans, but one would be led to believe in this film that the Russian soldiers and the children of the international proletariat are saints to the trigger happy Germans. The problem with the action sequences is that the editing comes across as awkward.

On the other hand the acting is well played and the story is fairly interesting. They managed to get some impressive scenes in Belarus at a monastery. It's worth a watch if you are interested in WWII, Russia, or China.

There is no real plot to speak of. It is mostly just some of the horrors of war as seen through the eyes of children. However, the visuals, acting and direction draws you in and never lets you go until the end. The movie makes its characters so sympathetic, that you almost ignore the political propaganda and concentrate entirely on their plight. War never looked so good, or more horrific.

If you are turned off by under aged nudity and child abuse, you probably would want to avoid this movie, however, you would be missing the cinematic experience of this or any lifetime.

Luckily I've read memoir of Zhu Min.

She was born in Moscow in 1926, after a month, her father Zhu De(the commander in chief of PLA) was ordered back to China to fight for KMT Government against Peking Government, and never have seen each other until 1940. In her childhood, she could only meet her father in the street -- where Zhu De's pictures were on the Wanted.

In 1941 she arrived U.S.S.R. for studies, but after six months, the fifteen year old girl was captured by German soldiers, and had been sent to a concentration camp in East Prussia. During the one week terrible death-march, suffering disease , she could barely believe that she was alive.

The fate was cruel, be Beaten, slashed by German solider was her life in that period, while witnessing many deaths --to be buried alive, gassed and genocide to Russian and Jewish people, and received a bad treatment from a German doctor, who cut off a bossing from her neck without applying any anesthetic nor disinfect.

During the 3.5 year life in the camp she lost her ability of speaking couldn't speak too much Russian, German, even Chinese, and didn't grow up.

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And by the way, there's another boy of CCP's high rank leader was killed at that time, too.

the execution by chopping in two parts was a normal phenomenon in the KMT era for terrorizing the communists. ------------

Whatever, many scenes weren't happen in one person, but it took place, and the reality was more horrible than the movie. I can tell you this film is a mixed truth, except the tattoo.

Normally I don't take Chinese propaganda seriously, it's made for one purpose and you can look it the other way even see the fun it. But this one is not the usual fiction movie that act like a fiction movie. This is a serious movie and make it claims that it actually happened but the history book says it never did. A false seriousness.

Zhu Min is transferred to Russian university in Moscow in the 1940s. She is happy with her friends until the German Nazi occupation of western part of Russia and Ukraine. She sended to a doctor as a slave, he finds her pure and give her an evil gift of a giant tattoo on her back of the Nazi eagle, she is scarred for life.

Sadly this striking story is false. Nazi did a lot of cruel things but there has never been heard of Chinese captivity nor a girl forced to wear a Nazi tattoo on her back. As far as I know Zhu Min was a daughter of Zhu De that studied in Russia but never heard of anything else about her captivity or anything like that except from a memoir that probably wasn't written by her. And her father wasn't executed, but the communist did execute a lot of anti communist in china which the movie doesn't tell of course but instead cook up a propaganda that her father was poor and executed but the anti communist. And to top the propaganda, a young Chinese boy in this movie is a hero , who do everything right, shoot the Nazis, humiliate them, and adopt a Russian girl even though he is like 16 years old, just to show how good the Chinese people are. Again not a problem if you are blind or can ignore the propaganda purposes of this character existence, which is a lot in Chinese movies unfortunately.

If this movie wasn't treated this false story as it happened then maybe I would give it a higher score but no I can't it's false seriousness, even the fiction war movies is more respectful to the history. 3/10 yes two extra point for the Russian actors who were good.

Two Chinese kids comes Russia to escape capitalism that had Zhou Mins father killed. But after a few times in Russia, the German Nazis appears. And then hell breaks lose for Zh Min.

The actors are good but that's all I can say. The movie is more focused on the brutality then the story. And I don't like the Chinese boy who is way to confident in this movie despite all the bad that happened, I guess he is the directors son or cousin or something.

Also a Nazi is fascinating by a Chinese girl, that's hilarious more then tragic. Nice try communist party.