Assembly (film)

Infobox Film
name = Assembly


caption =
director = Feng Xiaogang
producer = Wang Zhongjun
Ren Zhonglun
John Chong
Wang Tongyuan
writer = Liu Heng
(Adaption of "Guan Si")
narrator =
starring = Zhang Hanyu
Deng Chao
Yuan Wenkang
Li Naiwen
music = Wang Liguang
cinematography = Lü Yue
editing = Liu Miaomiao
distributor = Media Asia Distribution Ltd.
released = flagicon|China December 20 2007
flagicon|Hong Kong January 3, 2008
flagicon|ROC August 1, 2008
runtime = 124 min.
country = China/
Hong Kong
language = Mandarin
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:424281
imdb_id = 0881200

"Assembly" (zh-cpl|c=集结号|p="Jí jié hào"|l=Assembly (bugle call)) is a 2007 Chinese war-drama film directed by Feng Xiaogang, and starring Zhang Hanyu. It was first released in December 2007 in Mainland China. The film is one of the first few movies produced in the mainland with a portrayal in the realist style of the Chinese Civil War. The movie is an adaption of the novel "Guan Si" which is based on a real account of a veteran army captain upholding his company honor.

Story

The story begins in 1948 during the Chinese Civil War with Gu Zidi, a captain of the Chinese Red Army, fighting the Kuomintang (KMT) in northeastern China, and winning a battle with severe casualties. Enraged by the loss of his political officer just moments earlier, Gu refuses the KMT surrender, and orders his men to kill the prisoners, but the order is met mainly with refusal. Gu is thus disciplined and imprisoned by his commanding officer, Colonel Liu, during which Gu befriends the army teacher Wang Jincun, an intellectual and pacifist who was imprisoned for cowardice. Gu Zidi and his 46 remaining men are then sent to defend (with limited resources) an old mine on the south bank of the Wen River; he is to defend the flank, to the last man if necessary, and instructed not to retreat until he hears the bugle call for assembly with the regiment. Gu receives permission to take Wang (who is condemned anyway) as his new political officer.

Just as the platoon fortifies the position, the Kuomintang suddenly attack with artillery, infantry, and tanks. Between waves, Gu orders the dead and severely wounded to be carried into the mine. The company fiercely fends off the enemy until barely a handful survive, which is when a wounded soldier recalls that he heard the bugle call in the distance, just as the Nationalists were retreating from a recent attack. The others begin to say that they heard the bugle as well, and allege that Gu, deafened by multiple explosions, was not able to hear it. Angrily accusing his men of cowardice, Gu resolves to stay, which moves the remaining men to follow him and fight the KMT to the death. Gu Zidi is the only survivor of the battle, and while searching for food he is captured by the Red Army, who treat him as a POW for wearing a scavenged enemy uniform. Much to his despair he learns that no records of his regiment remain, due to a sudden change in the army's infrastructure, therefore no one believes his claim as a Red Army soldier, nor his accounts of the heroic battle.

In 1950, Gu went on to fight in the Korean War, posing as an artillery expert. During that time he befriended a young officer named Zhao Erdou. Disguised in South Korean army uniforms, Zhao and Gu are sent out on a sabotage mission when Zhao steps on a landmine, barely evading detection from a passing American tank patrol. Gu manages to get Zhao off the mine, and decides to remain and hold down the detonator, telling Zhao to go off and perform his duty; as he still harbors a deep shame for leading his men to die during the Wen River battle, he intends to kill himself. Releasing the detonator, the mine explodes in his face.

Flashing forward to 1955, an older Gu emerges, having survived the mine blast at the cost of his right eye and damage to his vision. He learns that his company has been listed "missing in action" which entitles their families to only partial compensation compared to those actually listed as killed. By chance he encounters Wang Jincun's widow asking about her husband, and tells her that he was Wang's commanding officer. He takes her to his old comrade Zhao, and while she is treated for a fever, he convinces him to marry her. He also returns to the old battlefield in search of the men he buried; it turns out that the old mine had been reactivated, and the old entrance had since been buried under a tonne of coal, thus making his search difficult.

In 1956, Gu encounters the regiment's bugler at Colonel Liu's grave, who has become its guardian, and learns that Liu, who died recovering from wounds in the Korean War, never ordered the bugler to sound the assembly call; it turns out that Gu's company was used to hold off the KMT so that Liu and the rest of the battalion could retreat, fearing that it would be wiped out. Enraged at first at this betrayal, Gu decides to forgive Liu, promising to join him in the afterlife. Undeterred from having no living witnesses, he camps out in a mining hut near the old battlefield and starts to dig at the huge coal pile daily with a pick and shovel, having Zhao allow him to stay despite protests from the miners. The dead men are finally honored through an official notice when another old survivor of Gu's battalion is found, but Gu remains inconsolable, as he still cannot unearth the bodies. Gu then recalls the end of the Wen River battle, where he and a mortally wounded Wang became the only survivors; after pulling the last of the dead into the mine and setting up explosives, Gu orders Wang to blow it up to prevent the corpses from being captured. Wang follows this order before dying, as Gu was knocked unconscious by a tank blast in his last defensive effort.

Eventually, excavations for an irrigation project in 1958 unveils the hidden tomb containing Gu's men. A large monument is later erected and a formal burial performed, finally putting Gu at peace. The epilogue captions reveal that Gu dies thirty years later at a veteran's retirement home, and the origin of his name being the place where he was found as an orphan; a millet field ("guzidi").

Historical accuracy

*The Chinese Red Army wore helmets that look similar to American M1 Helmet, which led to some dispute by critics who says their uniform looks like the professional American trained Nationalist Revolutionary Army instead of the militia peasant Army. [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1855326655 The Chinese Army 1937-49: World War II and Civil War (Men-at-Arms) by Philip Jowett] ] [ [http://www.amazon.com/dp/1841769045 Chinese Civil War Armies 1911-49 (Men-at-Arms) by Philip Jowett] ] In fact the dressing of the Communist soldiers are actually correct as they wore and used weapons they captured or received from former nationalists who switched to the Communist side in the late period of the Civil War.

*In both the Chinese Civil War and the Korean War, the majority of lower ranked privates in the army were illiterate peasants. However, army teachers (e.g. Wang JinChun) helped to educate them and thus only a few soldiers were still illiterate after both wars.Fact|date=September 2008

*Various small arms and machine guns that were used by both Communist and Nationalist in the movie can be seen from this list, those not on the list were improvised explosives and makeshift weapons. The tanks that was used by the Nationalists in the final battle and later in the Korean War appear to be Sherman tank and the M26 Pershing respectively.

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0881200|title=Assembly
*amg title|id=1:42428|title=Assembly
*rotten-tomatoes|id=10009581|title=Assembly