Twenty Two (2015): A sentimental, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) of the comfort women?

Abstract

Abstract This is an excerpt of the roundtable discussion on Twenty Two (Er shi er, 2015) organized by Deep Focus and was originally published on August 31, 2017. Following the delayed release of the documentary in 2017, as it deals with the sensitive subject matter of China’s surviving WWII comfort women, the roundtable addressed the aesthetic and ethical debates that this commercially successful documentary sparked: Whether the use of pillow shots is poetic or pointless? Is Twenty Two best understood as a sentimental, superficial “fast-moving consumer-goods documentary” of the comfort women? Is Twenty Two a good (technically accomplished) or bad (aesthetically and morally problematic) film? The panelists pointed out that the documentary fails to attend to gendered issues, historical reflections, and the violence of revictimization.