Starring: Tony Leung Ka-fai, Wang Wufu, Liu Dekai, Xu Guangming
Directors: Wei Lian, Shen Dong, Chen Jian
Category: IIB (Putonghua)
The Communist Party line on the Sino-Japanese war is mirrored in this epic commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Japanese surrender.
And an epic it is, employing the considerable resources of the People Liberation Army's August 1st Film Studio and thousands of troops as extras. But as is customary in mainland war sagas produced since the 1970s, the narrative is heavy on politically correct exposition and grandiose tableaux, while failing to tell a story that resonates with humanity.
The film concentrates on Commander Zhu De (Wang Wufu, who has made a career out of portraying Zhu on screen) during the years 1937-1940, when, as head of the 8th Route Army, he united with Kuomintang forces to defend the crucial Tai Hang region from the Japanese. Rather than focusing exclusively on Zhu and his stratagems in maintaining an uneasy alliance with the KMT while fighting their common enemy, the movie goes for a more grandiose approach that shuttles back and forth between the opposing camps.