{ "id": "epvm08gfk3", "slug": "fist-and-faith", "title": "Fist & Faith", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films", "label": "Coming-of-age films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "label": "Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001", "label": "China · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Fist & Faith (青禾男高) is a 2017 Chinese action film directed by Jiang Zhuoyuan and starring Jing Tian and Ou Hao, set in Japanese-occupied 1930s Manchuria.", "snippet": "Fist & Faith (青禾男高) is a 2017 Chinese action film directed by Jiang Zhuoyuan and starring Jing Tian and Ou Hao, set in Japanese-occupied 1930s Manchuria.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.coming-of-age-films.coming-of-age-films-released-2010-onward", "markdown": "# Fist & Faith\n\n**Fist & Faith** (青禾男高) is a 2017 Chinese action film directed by Jiang Zhuoyuan (蒋卓原), starring [Jing Tian](https://www.edgepedia.org/jing-tian), Ou Hao, Meisa Kuroki, and Kento Hayashi. Set in Japanese-occupied Manchuria in the 1930s, it follows a teacher and a group of high school students who form a study club to preserve Chinese language and culture, an act of protest that draws violent suppression from the Japanese authorities and their student allies.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) The film combines a schoolyard gang-war plot with an anti-Japanese resistance story, told in a deliberately comic-book and manga-inspired visual style.[2](https://en.chinaculture.org/2017-06/21/content_1024861.htm)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Original title | 青禾男高 (also promoted as 熱血高校之青禾男高)[3](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050) |\n| Director and writers | Directed by Jiang Zhuoyuan; written by Jiang Zhuoyuan and Gu Feifei[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) |\n| Principal cast | Jing Tian as teacher Liu He, Ou Hao as Jing Hao, Kento Hayashi as Shibata Sokichi, Meisa Kuroki as Shibata Kiyoko[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) |\n| Setting | 1930s Manchuria after the Japanese invasion; in 1932 Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo with Puyi as ruler[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [4](https://www.subtitlecat.com/subs/378/Fist.and.Faith.2017.WEB-DL.1080P.H264.AAC-JBY.html) |\n| Release | China, mid-July 2017 (IMDb lists July 13; The Numbers lists a wide release on July 14)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29) |\n| Runtime | Reported as 98 minutes (IMDb), 100 minutes (JustWatch), and 110 minutes (The Numbers)[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/fist-and-faith) • [5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29) |\n| Box office | $4,433,919 worldwide, all from China (The Numbers and IMDb); hkcinema.ru lists $4,702,198[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [3](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050) |\n| Ratings | IMDb 5.2/10 (127 votes); Douban 3.8/10 (26,348 votes); Mtime 5.2/10[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [3](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and setting\n\nThe story is set after the [Japanese invasion of Manchuria](https://www.edgepedia.org/japanese-invasion-of-manchuria). An on-screen prologue explains that in 1932 the Japanese invaders established the state of [Manchukuo](https://www.edgepedia.org/manchukuo) in northeastern China with Emperor Puyi installed as a puppet ruler, implemented enslavement education, raided Chinese publishers, and arrested progressive intellectuals in an effort to destroy [Chinese culture](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-culture) and history.[4](https://www.subtitlecat.com/subs/378/Fist.and.Faith.2017.WEB-DL.1080P.H264.AAC-JBY.html) Against this backdrop, progressive teachers and students formed an underground to keep Chinese culture alive, and were met with bloody suppression by the Japanese military police.[4](https://www.subtitlecat.com/subs/378/Fist.and.Faith.2017.WEB-DL.1080P.H264.AAC-JBY.html)\n\nAt the school named Qinghe Boys High (青禾男高), the student [Jing Hao](https://www.edgepedia.org/jing-hao) (Ou Hao) and his four friends A Pi, Tan Jiamu, Yao Ji, and Er Bing form a brotherhood that is the only group at the school resisting bullying by the Japanese students led by Shibata (Kento Hayashi).[7](https://watch.plex.tv/zh/movie/fist-and-faith) The arrival of the teacher Liu He (Jing Tian), who secretly runs a reading club spreading progressive ideas, breaks the delicate balance between the two factions and triggers open conflict.[7](https://watch.plex.tv/zh/movie/fist-and-faith) • [8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html) Because the Japanese authorities cannot directly police the reading club, they use the Japanese student gang to persecute its members through schoolyard violence; after friends die in the fighting, Jing Hao joins a final battle against the Japanese student faction and wins.[8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html) • [9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963) Liu He is described in one review as the daughter of a collaborator with a patriotic heart, who founded the reading club so Chinese students would not forget their roots.[9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963)\n\n## Style and production\n\n**Comic-book visuals.** Director Jiang Zhuoyuan described the film as a blend of Chinese campus life and Japanese manga style, an approach he offered as a way to give the youth-film genre new life.[2](https://en.chinaculture.org/2017-06/21/content_1024861.htm) The film opens with a sequence of comic-style cuts, and during the feature the acting is played with manga-like exaggeration, with on-screen comic captions and onomatopoeia; one reviewer compared moments to [Quentin Tarantino](https://www.edgepedia.org/quentin-tarantino) and *Sin City*.[9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963) A Chinese Newspaper and Publication Radio, Film and Television Journal piece credited the animation with two practical functions: animation can express action beyond what live shooting achieves, and it softens violence that might otherwise disturb audiences.[10](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0719/c40606-29415124.html) Reviewers and the director's own promotion also pointed to influences from the Japanese film *[Crows Zero](https://www.edgepedia.org/crows-zero)* (热血高校) and, in the action style, the Taiwanese gangster film *Monga*, with Do Cheng-Ze (钮承泽) serving as the film's supervisor.[9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963) • [8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html) • [10](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0719/c40606-29415124.html)\n\nThe production company was Black Ant (Shanghai) Film, and the film's languages are Chinese and Japanese.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) The cast also includes Ding Guansen, Zhang Ningjiang, Zhou You, and Hiroki Nakajima.[1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) • [11](https://www.le.com/ptv/vplay/31530809.html) The action staging was large in scale for a school story: Ou Hao said one major battle scene took the whole crew seven days to shoot, and that an actor was cut when a prop beer bottle of sugar glass was smashed.[8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html)\n\n## Release and box office\n\nThe film was scheduled for a summer 2017 release and was dated for July 14.[12](https://www.icswb.com/h/153/20170608/477438.html) It began national release at 18:00 on July 12; according to EntGroup data cited by Sohu, it took more than 9 million yuan in its first four hours on a screen share of only 6.5%, leading in occupancy and average audience per screening among summer releases at that point.[13](https://www.sohu.com/a/156805457_322591) Its final gross was modest: The Numbers and IMDb record $4,433,919, all earned in China,[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/) while hkcinema.ru lists $4,702,198 for the China box office.[3](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050) A Sohu retrospective in the same month put the cumulative take at under 30 million yuan with a Douban score below 5, counting the film among 2017's youth films that underperformed on both receipts and reputation.[14](https://mt.sohu.com/yule/d20170719/158268099_535321.shtml) The Numbers records a video release on September 8, 2020, by Bayview Entertainment, and classifies the film as live-action historical fiction in the action genre.[5](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29)\n\n## Reception\n\nChinese coverage framed the film in two ways. A Changjiang Daily review published via People's Online argued that the film genuinely merges youthful energy with anti-Japanese patriotic sentiment, calling it an interesting attempt that departs from the introspective tone of recent youth films, while noting that its humor and exaggerated action give it the feel of a hot-blooded manga rather than a solemn war drama.[8](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html) A China Daily culture piece likewise reported the director's aim of refreshing the genre with manga styling.[2](https://en.chinaculture.org/2017-06/21/content_1024861.htm)\n\nCriticism was sharper elsewhere. A review in The Paper called the film hollow, arguing that repeated slow-motion and comic-style effects padded out five-second actions into minutes without advancing the plot, that the characters' friendships and personalities were sketched thinly, and that a film steeped in Japanese visual culture while preaching resistance to Japan came across as incongruous.[9](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963) The Sohu retrospective noted that the film's second half shifts from schoolyard brawling into what critics mocked as an over-the-top anti-Japanese drama.[14](https://mt.sohu.com/yule/d20170719/158268099_535321.shtml) Audience scores reflect the divide: 3.8 on Douban from more than 26,000 voters against 5.2 on IMDb from a much smaller sample.[3](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050) • [1](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/)\n\nThe film remains available in North America on streaming services including Tubi, AsianCrush, Midnight Pulp, and [Cineverse](https://www.edgepedia.org/cineverse) channels, and for rent or purchase on Amazon Video.[6](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/fist-and-faith)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Fist & Faith (2017), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7619402/)\n2. [Coming-of-age film courts young viewers, China Daily culture (2017)](https://en.chinaculture.org/2017-06/21/content_1024861.htm)\n3. [Fist & Faith 青禾男高, HKCinema](https://en.hkcinema.ru/film/28050)\n4. [English subtitles, Fist.and.Faith.2017.WEB-DL.1080P, Subtitle Cat](https://www.subtitlecat.com/subs/378/Fist.and.Faith.2017.WEB-DL.1080P.H264.AAC-JBY.html)\n5. [Fist & Faith (2017), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Fist-and-Faith-%28China%29)\n6. [Fist & Faith streaming, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/fist-and-faith)\n7. [青禾男高 (2017), Plex](https://watch.plex.tv/zh/movie/fist-and-faith)\n8. [《青禾男高》是热血抗战片 不是校园版《艋舺》, 长江日报 via 人民网 (2017)](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0707/c40606-29389266.html)\n9. [《青禾男高》：热血又空洞，精分到苍白, 澎湃新闻 (2017)](https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1731963)\n10. [\"青禾男高\"打破青春片路线 立足家国情怀求新求变, 中国新闻出版广电报 via 人民网 (2017)](https://media.people.com.cn/n1/2017/0719/c40606-29415124.html)\n11. [青禾男高, 乐视视频](https://www.le.com/ptv/vplay/31530809.html)\n12. [《青禾男高》长沙造势，\"漫画电影\"致青春, 长沙晚报网 (2017)](https://www.icswb.com/h/153/20170608/477438.html)\n13. [《青禾男高》上映好评如潮 暑期档影片中拔得头筹, 搜狐 (2017)](https://www.sohu.com/a/156805457_322591)\n14. [同是青春片《闪光少女》比《秘果》《青禾男高》好, 搜狐 (2017)](https://mt.sohu.com/yule/d20170719/158268099_535321.shtml)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Coming-of-age films › Coming-of-age films released 2010 onward*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Fist & Faith\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Fist & Faith](https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith](https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Fist & Faith\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/fist-and-faith. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Fist & Faith is a 2017 Chinese action film directed by Jiang Zhuoyuan and starring Jing Tian and Ou Hao, set in Japanese-occupied 1930s Manchuria." }