In Body in Question: Image and Illusion in Two Chinese Films by Director Jiang Wen, Jerome Silbergeld notes that the target of Jiang Wen’s Devils on the Doorstep “knows no age or nation.” He goes on to quote Jiang Wen (from an interview with Tony Rayns):
I
went to Japan for the first time in 1991, and visited the Yasukuni
Shrine. Nearly everything I saw there reminded me of China – the shrine
could have been Chinese. Since then, I’ve visited Japan many times and
I’ve come to realize that there aren’t two types of person and that war
crimes are not fundamentally a Chinese-Japanese issue. The real issue is
war itself. It’s war that changes people.
JW got himself into some trouble visiting the Yasukuni Shrine because even though the majority of the names put in there are simply soldiers died in war they do put the name book of japanese WWII war criminal in the shrine, including the ppl who conducted Nanking Massacre that resulted in 40,000–300,000 dead (you can check the wiki page for a glimpse of it but fair warning: most of the photograph are very triggering: beware of extreme violence and rape images)
The shrine itself has become/is considered a symbol of right wing/militarism
japan and you can imagine how China (and South Korea who was colonized and invaded by Japan) see this as a very sensitive topic. As far as I know, there was some press media which made an accusation against JW out of it without any context, and some stupid ppl apparently believed it.
JW had to make an announcement saying that his visit to the Yasukuni Shrine was to better understand the mentality of japan militarism for his Devils on the Doorstep film, which is any responsible director should do imh.
A Force Sensitive Phasesixer 