They decide to travel together, but Fan's food supply and money are stolen by NRA soldiers amidst the chaos caused by Japanese bombing.

After surviving a few Japanese bombings and witnessing many innocent people dying, he takes refuge under Father Megan but starts doubting the presence of God.

[7] Xan Brooks of The Guardian wrote: Back to 1942 ... gives us history written in banner headlines and trumpeted by bugles.

[8]Dan Fainaru of Screen Daily wrote: An imposing, technically sophisticated achievement, Back To 1942 (Yi Jiu Si Er) covers a lot of ground and deals with a large cast of characters, but somehow, as if to confirm the old saying that one man dying is a tragedy but a million deaths is a statistic figure, it is rather the size of his film and the dexterity that went into its making which will affect Western audiences more than its contents.

[9]Giovanni Vimercati of the China Internet Information Center wrote: Compared to your average CGI-inflated blockbuster, "Back to 1942" scores in its meticulous attention to detail — everything from costumes to make-up do not shy away from displaying its generous budget.

However, despite investing considerable creative energy and capital in the representation of hunger and deprivation, the film fails to convey human suffering on an emotional level.

It will be very interesting to see how the film performs on American screens since hunger, in Hollywood as well as in modern China, is a taboo almost on a par with sex.

[11]Neil Genzlinger of The New York Times wrote: The film uses all the techniques familiar from other depictions of mass migration and suffering to try to bring the catastrophe down to a graspable scale, but it’s not terribly effective at humanizing its characters.