Dressing the Wounds: Medical Internationalism and Embodied Realism in Dr. Bethune

This article explores the cinematic and political significance of Dr. Bethune, a Chinese biographical film that transforms internationalist ideals into lived, corporeal experience through what I term “embodied realism.” Against the backdrop of twentieth-century medical internationalism and revolutionary humanism, the film foregrounds “blood ties” forged across racial and national boundaries through anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle. Situating Dr. Bethune within transnational currents of socialized medicine and global solidarity, it intersects multiple historical temporalities, transnational connections, political tensions, and media formats, raising critical questions: How does a 1960s Chinese film about a 1930s Canadian internationalist speak to the contemporary geopolitical context? By tracing Bethune’s medical and ideological legacy—from battlefield surgeries to contemporary struggles for medical justice—this article examines how “embodied realism” as a socialist aesthetics and revolutionary cinematic approach continues to illuminate the urgent need for transnational solidarity. Dr. Bethune stands as both a cinematic act of internationalism and a call to reimagine medical justice beyond the confines of the nation-state.