Review Of THE ASSEMBLY: RELEASED 7th MARCH

THE ASSEMBLY

Feng Xiaogang seems to be turning out very impressive pictures at the moment. His last one The Banquet was a loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and impressed both critics and audiences all around the world. For this project he chose an entirely different time period and subject matter: The Chinese Civil War.

The Assembly tells the story of Gu Zidi (played magnificently by Hanyu Zhang) and the 9^th Company of whom he is the Captain The story kicks off in northeast China in the winter of 1948, during the civil war between the Nationalist KMT and Communist PLA. In a small, ruined town under gray, snow-laden skies, Capt. Gu Zidi and his Ninth Company soldiers distinguish themselves in street combat with a KMT unit. But so enraged is Gu at the loss of his political officer that he shoots a KMT soldier in cold blood after the latter and his men have surrendered. Gu gets a token sentence of a few days' imprisonment, during which he meets fellow prisoner Wang Jincun (Yuan Wenkang), a political officer who's awaiting a possible death sentence for cowardice. When old guerrilla buddy Liu Zeshui (Hu Jun) orders Gu to take the Ninth Company on a special mission, Gu asks to take Wang along with him as the new political officer of the Company.. After valiant fighting by the ill-equipped, tiny Ninth Company against huge KMT forces a couple soldiers claim they've heard the assembly bugle call and argue for retreat. Gu says he's heard no such thing, and the Ninth fights to the last man -- Gu. Here story moves forward two months to when Gu is recovering in a PLA hospital, unable to prove his identity in the Civil War chaos. Three years later, in North Korea, he's fighting the Americans and South Koreans during another civil war, when he saves the life of Er Dou (Deng Chao), who has stepped on a mine. Rest of the film is largely set in 1955, in peacetime China by the Wen River, where a retirement home is being built for army veterans. Now obsessed with recovering his own honor and his comrades' missing bodies, Gu sets out on a mad personal mission against official bureaucracy, helped by Er Dou and Wang's young widow, Sun Guiqin (Tang Yan).

Although The Assembly brings nothing new to the well worn war genre, it is undeniably a powerful film. Unusually enough, the film does not really begin to gather momentum until almost an hour in: Gu Zidi’s journey after the end of the war bringing forth the necessary emotional weight. In fact one could easily say that the war scenes that largely make up the first part are some of the film’s weaker points: shaky-cam shot, Saving Private Ryan style fight scenes that serve only to propel the plot forward. But once Gu Zidi finds himself compelled to honor his dead comrades, the script gets stronger with much help from a towering performance by Hanyu Zhang. His portrayal of Gu Zidi is magnificent : watching him transform from battle-hardened soldier to obsessed war veteran is an exciting and amazing joy. What’s more, his camaraderie with others whom he fought shoulder to shoulder help to enrich the emotional core of the film immensely; by the end of the two hours, one truly gets a sense of the identity, of the core of this man.

The supporting cast are no slouches either, even though they are never given enough chance to shine. Most of the cast perform their duties admirably whilst special mention must go to Deng Chao who bring Er Doue alive even though his character does not appear on the screne until the second half of the film.

The film itself looks gorgeous, especially in the second half when the grey battlefield leave their places to more of China’s beautiful natural scenery. Although most of the battle scenes are shot with the techniques accepted as standard, the rest of the film is full of more serene, static shots, with the camera following the character without disturbing them. There is a sense of space, as each shot shows us the endless, boundless country going on behind the current action. Music is also suitably bombastic with emotional scenes heighted by cues of majestic tunes.

What is wonderful about seeing a film like The Assembly though is its’ infinite humanity. What motivates Gu Zidi, Er Dou and Sun Guigin, the central trio of the film, are their desire to honour their fallen or their desire to help a friend: although each of them may suffer, they never complain. Even near the end when a last minute emotional tiwst seems to turn everything upside down, Gu Zidi does not lose his humanity for more than a minute: his brief speech at his commanding officer’s grave is full of human emotions and illustrates his compassionate heart at its’ best.

I can heartily recommend The Assembly to anyone who wants to see a different kind of war film: set in an unusal period and without the usual maudling emotional blackmail designed to make the crowds weep. The Assembly is the real deal: a humanitarian tale of determination that leaves a mark long after the credits have run.