Devils on the Doorstep (2002)

A Chinese cinematic cousin to Heller's Catch-22 -- the absurd nature of warfare illustrated through pitch-black humor that recedes when the film turns serious. Ostensibly just about a small Chinese village during the Occupation whose fortunes change irreparably with the arrival of two POWs, it pulls back in its later moments to reveal itself as a comment on all humanity and both the wonderful and (more often) terrible things of which we as people are capable. (It's also pretty pointed in its attack on the Japanese idea of 'honor' as well as the 'rules' of warfare.) And amazingly, it manages all this without ever being portentious or preachy -- it's brisk and rude and oft-hilarious, culminating in a party scene that manages to be both spirit-lifting and agonizingly dread-filled. That the scene turns ugly in a moment's notice should be no surprise; that the film, so good at being funny, turns out to be even better at being devastating is even less of a surprise after the fact. World-class, this here is.

Grade: A