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Derek Malcolm's rating
The East's answer to Spielberg
By
Derek Malcolm
6 Mar 2008
If Feng Xiaogang, one of China's most successful directors, is the East's answer to Spielberg, then this war film is his Saving Private Ryan.
Written by Liu Heng, who collaborated with Zhang Yimou in classics Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern, it lavishly shows us not only the terrors of war, but the essential humanity of the soldiers involved.
Its central character is Guzidi (Zhang Hanyu), Captain of the Ninth Company of the People's Liberation Army, fighting the US-backed KMT. Ordered to retreat after a bloody pitched battle he fails to do so and loses all his men.
Blinded by guilt, he marches straight into the enemy trenches but is saved by the PLA and, though badly wounded, dedicates his life to finding and honouring the graves of the 46 men he caused to be killed.
The film has a naïve strength that makes it much more than just an expensive and expansive action movie, and in Hanyu a dignified hero who does what he has to do.
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