The Chinese Widow

Set during the Second World War, The Chinese Widow follows the American pilot Jack Turner, who takes part in a bombing raid on Tokyo after the attack on Pearl Harbor. When his aircraft runs out of fuel on the way back, he comes down in China, where Japanese forces are searching the area for survivors. Wounded, he is found by Ying, a young widow living in a nearby village with her daughter. She hides him in her home at great personal risk, helped by local resistance members, while the two gradually grow closer as the hunt around them intensifies.

The film was directed by Bille August, the tenth of the fifteen features he has made in chronological order, arriving between Night Train to Lisbon and 55 Steps. Greg Latter wrote the screenplay, Peng Sun produced it, and the Chinese production was handled by ROC Pictures. Liu Yifei plays Ying and Emile Hirsch plays Jack Turner, with Fangcong Li, Kevin Yan, Yu Shaoqun and Vincent Riotta in supporting roles.

The film runs 97 minutes and was released in November 2017. It took in about 4 million US dollars worldwide, a modest return. On IMDb it holds a rating of 6.3 from roughly 2,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.2 from around 227 votes, a smaller but noticeably warmer response.