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Victory
Movie

Victory

1976 • Unknown

Woke Score
1
out of 10

Plot

Victory is a 1976 Taiwanese war film directed by Liu Chia-chang, set in the Second Sino-Japanese War. The film won 5 awards at the 1976 Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, including Best Feature Film.

Overall Series Review

Victory is a 1976 Taiwanese war film that chronicles the intense struggle of Chinese patriots in Taiwan against the Japanese occupation during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The narrative centers on a young, newlywed couple whose lives are shattered when the Japanese military's expansionist agenda leads to the murder of their fathers. The husband escapes to the mainland to join the resistance, leaving his wife behind. The wife, a teacher, is forced to make an agonizing moral choice: sacrifice her personal honor to save her male students from conscription by the occupying Japanese captain. This devastating choice results in her shaming by the community and the suicide of her mother-in-law, driving home the personal and communal tragedy of foreign oppression. The film is a clear patriotic defense of national honor, family, and ancestral land against a hostile foreign power. The core values celebrated are sacrifice, loyalty, and resistance. There is a strong, non-relative moral structure that champions the defense of the home culture and traditional family units.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics1/10

The plot focuses entirely on a national and ethnic conflict between Chinese people in Taiwan and the Japanese Imperial forces. The narrative judges characters based on their national loyalty and moral fortitude in the face of tyranny. The story centers on a shared experience of foreign oppression and resistance, completely bypassing any internal lectures on intersectional hierarchy or identity group vilification.

Oikophobia1/10

The central dramatic conflict is a direct result of the Japanese military attempting to violate and remove a Chinese graveyard for a power plant expansion. The hero's father is killed for defending his ancestors’ resting place. The entire film is a celebration of national resistance and the defense of home, heritage, and nation against a foreign enemy, which is the exact opposite of civilizational self-hatred.

Feminism2/10

The female lead is defined by her role as a wife and teacher, with the narrative heavily focusing on the concept of honor and family structure. The wife's tragic sacrifice to protect her students leads directly to her social shaming and the suicide of her mother-in-law out of shame. The dramatic weight of the story rests on the traditional view of a woman's virtue and familial duty, making it a clear rejection of the modern 'Girl Boss' and anti-natalist messages.

LGBTQ+1/10

The core relationship of the story is the normative, traditional male-female marriage between Lin I-kwang and Chou Wen-ying. The plot's drama revolves around this foundational unit and its ties to the extended family (the mother-in-law). The film offers no presence of alternative sexual ideologies, deconstruction of the nuclear family, or lecturing on gender theory. Sexuality remains a private matter within the context of marriage and family honor.

Anti-Theism1/10

The conflict begins with the defense of a Chinese graveyard, demonstrating a respect for ancestors and traditional funerary rites. The film operates on an objective moral truth where Japanese aggression is evil and Chinese resistance is good. The narrative structure is a classical moral tale of good versus evil and sacrifice for a higher national ideal. There is no evidence of hostility toward religion or promotion of moral relativism.