Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters

Gai Shanxi and her Sisters
Directed by	Ban Zhongyi
Distributed by	dGenerate Films
Release date	2007 (2007)
Running time	80 minutes
Country	China
Languages	Chinese, Japanese, English subtitles[1]

Gai Shanxi and her Sisters (Chinese: 盖山西和她的姐妹们; pinyin: gai shan xi he ta de jie mei men), directed by Ban Zhongyi,[2] is a 2007 independent Chinese documentary about a Chinese woman's ordeal as a "comfort woman" for the Japanese Army during World War II.[3]

Zhongyi also wrote a related book of the same name.[4]

Plot

Li Dong‘e is a young woman living in a village in Yu County, Shanxi province during the Sino-Japanese War. Because of her beauty she was nicknamed "Gai Shanxi" ("The most beautiful in whole Shanxi Province). In 1941 she and other women from her village are captured by Japanese soldiers.[5] The women are taken to a Japanese stronghold, raped and used as sex slaves.[6]

Gai Shanxi twice rescues other women by offering herself to the Japanese. The continual rapes damage her both physically and mentally. After the war she is shunned by her husband and the villagers and commits suicide.[6]

Festivals

The film was shown at the Amnesty International Film Festival and the Yunnan Multi Culture Visual Festival (YUNFEST).[7]

References

1. Nishino, Kim & Onozawa 2018.
2. Kimura 2016.
3. Warner 2012, p. 313.
4. Yukinori 2007.
5. Cheng 2015, p. 6.
6. Chu 2007, p. 187.
7. "Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters (China's Past, Present, Future on Film series)". Asia Society. Retrieved 7 December 2019.

Bibliography

• Cheng, Jim (20 June 2015). "Chinese Independent Films from 1987-2013". C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University. doi:10.7916/D89S20K4. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
• Chu, Yingchi (2007). Chinese Documentaries: From Dogma to Polyphony. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-134-18603-7.
• Kimura, Maki (2016). Unfolding the 'Comfort Women' Debates: Modernity, Violence, Women's Voices. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-39251-0.
• Nishino, Rumiko; Kim, Puja; Onozawa, Akane, eds. (2018). Denying the Comfort Women: The Japanese State's Assault on Historical Truth. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-351-69063-8.
• Warner, Judith Ann (2012). Women and Crime: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 978-1-59884-424-5.
• Yukinori, Shibata (15 April 2007). "Book Review Gai Shanxi And Her Sisters". www.jesuitsocialcenter-tokyo.com. Jesuit Social Center, Tokyo. Retrieved 7 December 2019.

External links

• Gai Shanxi and her Sisters at IMDb
• "Gai Shanxi and her Sisters on dGenerate Films website". Archived from the original on 13 May 2016.
• Gai Shanxi and Her Sisters on YouTube