China Invades America in Red Dawn 2010

I am really looking forward to this.

A remake of the 1984 film titled Red Dawn, which depicted a Soviet invasion of the US starring Patrick Swayze, is coming out later this year. If you haven’t seen the original film you should. Not only because it features a young Ghost-era Swayze but because the story is about high school students fending off a Soviet invasion of small-town America.

In 2010 with the worldwide economic crisis on everyone’s tongue, and the US in danger of insolvency with China as one of it’s largest creditors, the Communist paranoia fad is back with a vengeance.

I’m giddy with anticipation to see a “group of teenagers band together to save their town from an invasion of Chinese forces”, but I have a feeling that this movie, like 2012, will promote a lot of inaccurate and hilarious stereotypes. Honestly though, to separate this movie from its camp roots would be would be unfaithful to the source material. Before the Soviet empire collapsed this must have seemed like a terrifying scenario but looking back on it, it appears cartoonishly implausible and lends the movie a renewed comedic spirit.

Surreal depiction of a "Chinese / American Friendship Center" in Red Dawn 2010

Judging from these photos, the 1984 films successor appears to at least match the ludicrous plot of the original which included Russian paratroopers landing just outside the window of Patrick Swayze’s high school classroom.

Official insignia of the PLA

Let me guess what happens: China hacks a computer and flies the largest invasion force Earth has seen to American shores, undetected, and takes control of the continental United States as its well-armed populace concedes to an economically superior China.

I’m not looking forward to this movie to see what happens as much as how it happens. What do 60’s style propaganda posters look like in 2010? How would an invaded American citizenry react? If what many Conservatives in the United States think of their own African-American president is any indication, I don’t see concession in the cards.

The logo you see featured prominently on these posters is that of the People’s Liberation Army, and the characters within the logo (??) mean 8-1 which is the date of the 1927 Nanchang Uprising. It was on this day that Kuomintang and Communist parties first battled (over Nanchang, capital of Jiangxi province) and is recognized as the anniversary of the People’s Liberation Army.

The new iteration of Red Dawn is the directorial debut of stunt coordinator Dan Bradly who’s filmography includes Spider Man 3 and The Bourne Ultimatum, among many others.

8 thoughts on “China Invades America in Red Dawn 2010”

  1. Wow… just wow… this is bound to stir up quite a shit storm in the Mainland. I’m betting it’s not going to be one of the 20 Hollywood favs to hit PRC screens. 🙂

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  2. This absurd movie offers China a good test of it’s PR abilities. Rather than getting all red-faced and and announcing “you have hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” (it’s always retarded when the foreign affairs office says that), China should screen the movie in wide release and have a good laugh. Show the world the maturity and sense of humour China has. However, I’m tipping the inevitable “you have hurt the feelings….”

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    • Hopefully we even have a chance to see this:

      from Wikipedia: “Red Dawn was scheduled to be released on November 24, 2010, but is now in limbo due to MGM’s lack of funding.”

      🙁

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  3. This movie was changed drastically and now it’s about North Korea invading the US, not China. From Wikipedia:

    In March 2011, the Los Angeles Times reported that MGM is changing the villains in its Red Dawn remake from Chinese to North Korean in order to maintain access to China’s lucrative box office. The changes reportedly cost less than $1 million and involve changing an opening sequence summarizing the story’s fictional backdrop, re-editing two scenes and using digital technology to transform many Chinese symbols to Korean. The changes will not eliminate all references to China though will give North Korea a much larger role in the coalition that invades the U.S. Producer Trip Vinson stated, “We were initially very reluctant to make any changes, but after careful consideration we constructed a way to make a scarier, smarter and more dangerous ‘Red Dawn’ that we believe improves the movie.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Dawn_(2012_film)

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