My War

我的战争

China, 2016, colour, 2.35:1, 3-D, 120 mins.

Director: Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang].

Rating: 6/10.

A solid slice of gung-ho heroics during the Korean War, reconfigured for 21st-century audiences.

STORY

Northeast China, 1952, during the Korean War, winter. At a brief stop-off on its way by train to the front in North Korea, the Ninth Company of the People’s Volunteer Army, led by Sun Beichuan (Liu Ye), is joined by an all-female Art Troupe, led by Meng Sanxia (Wang Luodan). During some banter between the men and women, the two leaders discover they are from neighbouring villages. While stealing some good-quality weapons from another train in the station, Ninth Company bugler Zhang Luodong (Yang Youning) is arrested and almost left behind, to the consternation of veteran explosives specialist Li Shunliang (Huang Zhizhong), who effectively adopted the orphaned Zhang Luodong years earlier down south in Fujian province. In North Korea, US planes and troops attack the train; Sun Beichuan manages to save the day. Half a month later, short of food and first aid, the company is ordered to go to Wu Yi Pavilion in the mountains and stop the enemy advancing any farther north. In a battle with a US tank convoy, PVA soldier Big Axe (Wang Qi) sacrifices himself; subsequently, Li Shunliang, helped by Zhang Luodong, destroys the US tank convoy in a gully. Sun Beichuan tries to apologise to Meng Sanxia for his earlier lack of manners by getting Zhang Luodong to write her a letter on his behalf, but she spots the truth and wonders whose feelings the letter really expresses. As the Ninth Company pushes south, they end up in a ruined town that’s been heavily mined. Sun Beichuan rescues Meng Sanxia from one mine but then discovers the town is encircled by US troops. During fierce fighting, Zhang Luodong and the Art Troupe help to break through the ring, though Li Shunliang sacrifices himself. After a pause, Ninth Company hears its next mission is to take Hill 537 – and Sun Beichuan tells Meng Sanxia he may not return alive.

REVIEW

Who’d have thought, a decade ago, that Hong Kong genre director Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang] (Bangkok Dangerous บางกอกแดนเจอรัส เพชฒฆาตเงียบ：อันตราย, 1999; The Eye 见鬼, 2002; The Detective C+ 侦探, 2007) would have ended up directing a Mainland war movie? The surprise is that My War 我的战争 is a remarkably solid production – and certainly a major improvement on Peng’s last outing, also China-funded, the wannabe quirky crime mystery Detective Gui 宅女侦探桂香 (2015). Centred on a fictional company in the so-called People’s Volunteer Army during the Korean War, the film plays by the rules and delivers two hours of military heroics, lots of explosions and (for 3-D audiences) whizzing bullets, and some gruff personal interplay – all of which passes the time in a totally formulaic way without really engaging the emotions.

On the writing side, the film wheels out some big names: the script is credited to veteran Liu Heng 刘恒, who’s handled this kind of movie before (Assembly 集结号, 2007; The Flowers of War 金陵十三钗, 2011), and the whole thing is supposedly “inspired” by the 1961 short story Reunion 团员 by the late, great Mainland author Ba Jin 巴金. In fact, it has nothing in common with Ba Jin’s story, apart from being set during the Korean War and sharing the small detail of a commander revealing who his daughter is (though in an entirely different context).

Ba Jin’s story was filmed as Heroic Sons and Daughters 英雄儿女 (1964), a solid b&w war drama of the time that was actually much closer to the real thing than My War ever is. For 21st-century audiences, Peng’s film strips out all the sloganeering of the period – the script doesn’t even contain a hint of the political officers who were embedded in the PVA (basically the PLA under another name) and played a crucial role in the war – and presents the soldiers simply as eager-beaver “volunteers” in a story that’s a direct retort to the US’ current Asia Pivot policy. It’s actually a neat fit, as China’s involvement in the Korean War was a direct response to its borders being threatened by the US military at the time. For anyone still not paying attention, on-screen text spells out the film’s contemporary message.

Peng & Co. have clearly seen the gung-ho war movies of South Korean director Gang Je-gyu 강제규 | 姜帝圭 – especially Taegukgi 태극기  휘날리며 (2004) with its pinging bullets and close camerawork – and have even hired a Korean action director, Jeon Yu-jun 전유준 | 全庾浚. The action sequences, which dominate the movie and take up most of the final 40 minutes, have an immediacy and visceral impact that’s impressive, integrated with okay VFX in the first setpiece (an attack on the PVA’s train) and jazzed up in the long finale by mounting cameras on gun barrels. Mobile editing by Peng and Thailand’s Pipat Sawasdee keeps things moving smartly along, inside and outside the battlefield, and the versatile widescreen camerawork by Hong Kong’s Chen Weinian 陈伟年 (I Am Somebody 我是路人甲, 2015) is equally adept at wintry, colourless combat as it is at warmer-hued, more composed moments (such as the coda, the one really affecting moment in the movie).

Refreshingly, Liu’s script centres on a small number of main characters (all easily recognisable) and has an uncomplicated storyline. There’s not much military strategy discussed, and a couple of love stories between the male soldiers and the female Art Troupe, are token at best, but performances are likeable by the youngish cast. Liu Ye 刘烨, here at his gruffest and most blank-faced, is OK as the yokelly company leader, with Taiwan’s Yang Youning 杨祐宁 bouncing around as his lighter-hearted colleague. Between the two, Mainlander Wang Luodan 王珞丹 (the nerdy title character in Detective Gui) makes a reasonable stab at giving her character some spunk; but as an actress she still lacks a strong signature of her own beyond variations on cute.

When not doing standard battle/heroics stuff, the score by Mainland composer Lao Zai 捞仔 [Loudboy], aka Wu Liqun 吴立群 (Peng’s Sleepwalker in 3D 梦游, 2011; He-Man 硬汉2  奉陪到底, 2011; Saving Mr. Wu 解救吾先生, 2015), is above average for the genre, with some neatly descriptive passages in the quieter moments. Production design for the period is okay, though the costumes look way too well laundered. In another sign of the film’s reconfiguring of the past, not a single cigarette is consumed on screen despite this being a 1950s war movie. On release in China, My Way made no impression at the box office, actually grossing slightly less (RMB36 million) than the inferior Detective Gui (RMB41 million).

CREDITS

Presented by China Film (CN). Produced by YoShow Film & TV Production (CN).

Script: Liu Heng. Short story: Ba Jin. Photography: Chen Weinian. Editing: Peng Shun [Oxide Pang], Pipat Sawasdee. Music: Lao Zai [Loudboy]. Art direction: Yi Zhenzhou. Costume design: Zhang Jin. Sound: Wang Yanwei, Wang Gang. Action: Jeon Yu-jun, Yang Shuai. Visual effects: Wei Yibing, Shen Yong (China Film VFX), Zhang Le, Shan Lianchao (Massive Pictures), Liu Hao (Beijing Dreamscape Star Culture Media). Executive direction: Zhang Xichuan.

Cast: Liu Ye (Sun Beichuan, Ninth Company commander), Wang Luodan (Meng Sanxia, Art Troupe head), Huang Zhizhong (Li Shunliang/Big Daddy), Yang Youning (Zhang Luodong/Little Magician), Ye Qing (Wang Weijun, Liu Shiwei’s girlfriend), Wang Longhua (Liu Shiwei, Art Troupe conductor), Guo Jinglin (Tian Yizhou), Hou Yijian (Lao Bangzi/Old Dude), Fu Hong (Da Mihu), Ji Xiaofei (Lao Ciwei/Hedgehog), Wang Qi (Da Fuzi/Big Axe), Lin Yanrou (Lin Meiyu), Zhang Shan (hospital head), Geng Le (Second Company commander), Liu Yingyi (Xiaogao), Xu Jiaqi (Xiaosong), Geng Yizhi (First Company commander), Tian Muchen (regimental commander).

Release: China, 15 Sep 2016.