The award winning Mainland flick Cow is the latest of Stoo’s experiences at the 2010 Terracotta Far East Film Festival.

Set during the Second World War, Nie Er’s (Huang Bo) entire village has been massacred by the Japanese soldiers and the only survivor left behind is the village’s cow. Before the massacre Nie Er was reluctantly assigned to look after the cow until the Chinese army reclaim the animal and a bonus in the deal is the hand of young widow, Jiu (Yan Ni). When attempting to flee to the mountains, Nie’s cow is captured by the Japanese forces and Nie is faced with the choices of leaving the cow behind or honouring his promise.

Possibly one of the biggest movies that’s come out of the mainland lately, the multi-award winner gives the audience a different take to the WW2 story. Rather than being stuck in the trenches, we’re taken to the abandoned villages to see the desperation between the refugees and the rebels. The movie does seem quite long and just shy of two hours the movie does grind a little. Of course the interactions between Nie and the cow does keep the movie clever and amusingly fresh at points. However by the end of the movie I experienced everything from the giggles to being choked up!

[Ed. Note; Podcast on Fire travel to various Festivals across the United Kingdom to provide reviews for our audience. We would like to thank Terracotta Far East Film Festival for their valuable time and effort put into this festival and support for Podcast on Fire]