Instead of a conventional happy holiday theme, this year's
offering from director Feng Xiaogang is a sorrowful tale of war
that offers a rare insight into the minds of obscure common
soldiers -- the kind of men who can end up in anonymous graves.
The Assembly, by bankable director Feng, was a box office
hit at the end of its first week. The film, released nationwide
last Thursday,? has surpassed the 100 million Chinese yuan
(US$14 million) mark at the box office, according to its
distributor, Huayi Brothers, surpassing the take of last year's
holiday release, also by Feng,
A World Without Thieves.
Assembly features real gun battles, a huge contrast
with the usual depictions of war heroes, mostly generals or senior
commanders, as almost superhuman or at least as brilliant
strategists.
Feng's film is a human drama about a soldier of a People's
Liberation Army unit during the civil war between the Communists
and the Kuomintang (KMT), or the Nationalists, in the 1940s. The
soldier, once a company commander, devotes his life to redeeming
the honor of fellow soldiers who are declared missing in
action.
The director said the film did not hide soldiers' fears about
battle and death. It enlivened all the characters by truly
reflecting soldiers' weakness and fear on the battlefield.
"It's normal to fear death, and not to fear is abnormal," Feng
said.
The 80 million yuan (US$11 million) film is a departure from
Feng's caustic, darkly humorous tone in his previous new year's
pieces. It has greatly moved filmgoers, many of whom left the
theaters in tears.
A post on China's major portal website sohu.com compared
Assembly with several modern war epics including the US
film Saving Private Ryan.
"It's China's own modern war blockbuster, also in terms of
techniques, which is much more meaningful than some exuberant
ancient costume TV plays and kung fu movies," it says, adding that
society today needed to look back on the cruelty of wars in order
to cherish modern life and peace.
One of the most famous directors in China, Feng did not feature
any of China's A-list actors in his low-budget film. The director
said, with a humorous touch, that he himself was the biggest star.
"That's enough."
According to Feng, Assembly wants to release an "utmost
sincerity" to "make a really good movie for the audience" and that
effect would not have been achieved with cinematic
heavyweights.
In comparison, Warlords, another war epic set in the
1870s, features Chinese action star Jet Li, Hong Kong superstar
Andy Lau, heart-throb actor Takeshi Kaneshiro and Beijing-based
actress/director Xu Jinglei.
The annual year-end movie war broke out in China last month when
Ang Lee's award-winning film Lust, Caution was released on
the mainland. But a tougher competition started last week when
Assembly and Warlords, among others, became
rivals for filmgoers' affection and ticket money.
Even so, Assembly was "neck-and-neck" with
Warlords in terms of box office on their respective
opening days, although only half the country's screens were
available for Assembly whereas Warlords occupied
all China's screens on its first day, according to the Huayi
Brothers.
The box office receipts showed that a small-name cast could
generate large-scale sales. Chen Xiaoyun, a professor at the
Beijing Film Academy, said that "the pathos of the movie had an
attraction especially in a era full of rampant consumerism."
China Central Television (CCTV) ran an "unprecedentedly long"
news item on the film the day after its release, introducing
Assembly and interviewing audiences and cinema
managers.
The piece ran 69 seconds on CCTV's prime-time news program,
which is China's most-watched TV show. It was believed that state
TV had never before run such a long movie news item.
Zhou Zurong, a website columnist, said the movie had achieved
national influence and it was a legitimate news story.
Some netizens believe the high-profile appearance on state TV
news had "elevated" the status of the film to a "principal-theme"
one, a category advocated by China's cultural regulators. A movie
of that kind usually reflects "social progress and era spirit" or
depicts people's value system.
Rao Shuguang, with the China Film Art Research Center, said
Assembly was a mainstream blockbuster "in a real sense",
which could point to a direction for the development of Chinese
movies.
Feng's previous large box office successes were films such as
Big Shot's Funeral, Cell Phone and The
Banquet.
(Xinhua News Agency December 27, 2007)
