Towards the River Glorious

打过长江去

China, 2019, colour, 2.35:1, 94 mins.

Director: Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang].

Rating: 5/10.

A fairly routine flag-waver that manages to ring some minor changes on the period war genre.

STORY

China, Apr 1949, the final stages of the civil war. On the eve of the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign – to capture Nanjing, capital of the KMT government, and then the whole of southern China – the PLA sends small units across the river to prepare the way. One of these, led by Xiao (Nie Yuan), a major, has not been heard of for several days, so the Taixing headquarters of the PLA sends a unit under a battalion political instructor, Li Shouguang (Zhang Tong), a native of the area, to investigate. On the south bank of the river the unit meets resistance fighter Lin Cuo (Zhao Bin), who takes them, as arranged, to Taihu township to meet up with Xiao’s unit. In Taihu Li Shouguang meets local resistance head Die (Yan Peng), who has Li Shouguang escorted to meet Xiao. However, it’s an elaborately planned KMT trap: Lin Cuo and Die are not whom they say, and in a big gun battle Xiao dies, after entrusting a map of the KMT’s river defences to one of his unit, Dage (Hong Tianzhao). Li Shouguang is wounded but he and the other survivors are rescued by a band of Communist guerrillas and escape on bamboo rafts. As they do so, a KMT lieutenant, Li Shouming (Yang Yi), holds off firing at them, as he recognises his elder brother, Li Shouguang, on one of the rafts. Li Shouguang also recognises his younger brother, whom he hasn’t seen for six years. Next day, a British gunboat, HMS Amethyst, which is patrolling the river contrary to international treaty, is shelled by the PLA from the north bank and put out of action. At the Wuxi headquarters of the KMT’s National Security Bureau, Li Shouming is questioned over his behaviour by director Wu Jianzhong (Chunyu Shanshan), who forgives him this time. Dage delivers the map to Li Shouguang, but the group needs to locate a working radio set in Wuxi to transmit its details to the PLA. There they’re helped by local businessman Zhu Fulai (Lv Xiaopin), a Communist sympathiser, but the signal is picked up by the NSB, which storms the building. In a furious gun battle the group escapes by a hair’s breadth, though their mute sharpshooter (Xu Yating) is killed. Afterwards, Li Cuo shoots Wu Jianzhong, whom he suspects of planning to desert, and then tries to kill Li Shouming, whom he also suspects of divided loyalties. Li Shouming is rescued by his elder brother and his small band, who then try to blow up the crucial Fengyu bridge as the massive Yangtze River Crossing Campaign starts on 21 Apr.

REVIEW

Two brothers find themselves on opposite sides on the eve of the 1949 Yangtze River Crossing Campaign 渡江战役 – the PLA’s major push into southern China during the civil war against the Nationalists – in Towards the River Glorious 打过长江去, a fairly routine flag-waver among the several historical productions commissioned for the 70th anniversary of the PRC. The biggest surprise is the director’s name on the can – Hong Kong’s Peng Shun 彭顺 [Oxide Pang], 54, better known for genre movies co-directed with Peng Fa 彭发 [Danny Pang] like Bangkok Dangerous บางกอกแดนเจอรัส เพชฒฆาตเงียบ：อันตราย (1999), its dodgy US remake (2008), plus horror The Eye 见鬼 (2002) and disaster film Out of Inferno 3D 逃出生天3D (2013). Peng’s solo movies have always been more interesting than those of his younger twin and with Glorious he manages to ring some minor changes on routine material, at least for the first hour, despite the lack of any major stars. Audiences, however, weren’t impressed, and the film sank at the box office with a paltry RMB22 million.

The campaign, which marked the final turning point in the civil war, has already formed the basis of two movies – from the diaries of military officer Xiong Zhaoren 熊兆仁 – the b&w Reconnaissance across the Yangtze 渡江战役 (1954, dir. Tang Xiaodan 汤晓丹) and a 1974 widescreen colour remake (dirs. Tang Huada 汤化达, Tang Xiaodan). But Glorious isn’t really about the campaign itself, which is briefly seen at the end in some spectacular footage culled from another (uncredited) war movie. Instead, it’s a small-scale, fictional story about a side-show on the campaign’s eve, centred on a PLA recon mission during which two feuding brothers unexpectedly meet after a gap of six years.

Despite Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau] being entrusted with The Founding of an Army 建军大业 (2017), it’s still not usual for Hong Kong directors to be given Mainland anniversary productions to direct. But Pang already proved himself a couple of years ago with the China Film-backed My War 我的战争 (2016), set during the Korean War, that was formulaic but delivered the goods and was remarkably solid. This time the script, by actor-writer-director Zhao Ningyu 赵宁宇 (Founding of an Army), is pretty much by the numbers, though it does manage to acknowledge some personal tensions among the communists as well as among the Nationalist villains before throwing up its hands at the hour mark and delivering a standard war movie.

Until then, the film has a simmering atmosphere of menace and suspicion that’s unusual in such productions, with the mobile, edgy camerawork by Chen Weinian 陈伟年 (My War), restless cutting by top Mainland editor Zhang Yifan 张一凡 and growling orchestral score by Lao Zai 捞仔 [Loudboy] (My War) keeping the audience on its toes – as well as cleverly disguising the movie’s TVD tendencies and lack of a sizeable budget. The way in which the viewer is first tricked, and then led to suspect any new character’s motives, is largely down to the edgy package that Peng puts together. And as a pure action setpiece, the 15-minute gun battle halfway through the film that involves all the main characters is quite a number.

Performances are solid, with the villains as usual more interesting than the heroes: the KMT spy chief of Chunyu Shanshan 淳于珊珊 (the best pal in Witness 目击者, 2012) is the standout here, closely followed by TV’s Zhao Bin 赵滨 as his ambitious sidekick. The plot is basically over after 80 minutes; the rest of the running time is made up of war footage plus end credits. One hilariously o.t.t. sequence centred on a British gunboat – to underline foreign interference in the civil war – would have best been left on the cutting-room floor. The original Chinese title means simply “Across the Yangtze River”.

CREDITS

Presented by China Film (CN), Guangzhou Broadcasting Network (CN). Produced by Bai’an Film (Shanghai) (CN).

Script: Zhao Ningyu. Original story: Zhu Shang. Script planning: Ding Xiaoyang. Photography: Chen Weinian. Editng: Zhang Yifan. Music: Lao Zai [Loudboy]. Art direction: Liu Lu. Styling: Xing Ni’na. Sound: Qu Xia, Wang Danrong. Action: Yang Shouxin. Visual effects: Ma Ping, Sheng Yong. Military advice: Zhao Ningyu. Executive direction: Zang Xichuan, Ding Zenghui.

Cast: Zhang Tong (Li Shouguang), Yu Yue (Rong Rong), Yang Yi (Li Shouming), Chunyu Shanshan (Wu Jianzhong), Hong Tianzhao (Peng San/Dage), Zhao Bin (Lin Cuo), Xu Yating (Ya Gu/Mute), Ji Xiaofei (He Yi/Yanjing/Specs), He Kuan (Sun Chenggang), Yan Peng (Die), Nie Yuan (Xiao, major), Lv Xiaopin (Zhu Fulai, businessman), Zhao Ningyu (commander), Wang Jinsong (money-shop owner), Zang Yulin (division commander).

Release: China, 16 Oct 2019.