The Battle at Lake Changjin II
长津湖之水门桥
China, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 147 mins.
Director: Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark].
B-unit (Hagaru-ri) director: Xu An 许安 [Koan Hui].
Associate directors: Huang Jianxin 黄建新, Bak Ju-cheon 박주천 | 朴柱天.
Rating: 8/10.
A cracking, action-filled war movie that’s tighter and more dramatically focused than the first film.
STORY
Northeast Korea, late Nov 1950. Following heavy fighting between US troops and the (Chinese) People’s Volunteer Army around Changjin lake, US troops are retreating as fast as possible from Sinhung-ri, just south of the reservoir, towards the camp and airstrip at Hagaru-ri to meet up with the US 1st Marine Division commanded by Oliver P. Smith (John F. Cruz). Wu Qianli (Wu Jing), commander of the 7th Company, is ordered to stop US troops escaping by plane from Hagaru-ri. Twelve kilometres from the heavily-defended airstrip, 7th Company meets other soldiers converging on Hagaru-ri. US planes from the fleet in the Sea of Japan first strafe 7th Company and then bomb an artillery battalion led by Yang (Geng Le). Finally PVA troops storm Hagaru-ri’s periphery defences. Oliver P. Smith calls US general Douglas MacArthur (James Filbird) in Tokyo but is told no reinforcements will be sent and he must hold Hagaru-ri at all costs. However, Oliver P. Smith is finally forced to evacuate his US troops from the camp and airstrip, and retreat through the mountains along the only road south to Heungnam port. Along the road is a section on the side of a hill known as Sumun bridge, where the road narrows for a water substation that has been constructed to channel water from Changjin reservoir into four giant concrete pipes down to a turbine in the valley below. The site is held by US troops. From the 9th Corps’ frontline headquarters at Seungbang-dong, commander Song Shilun (Zhang Hanyu) orders 7th Company to withdraw from the airstrip, head towards 1081 Highland (the hill above Sumun bridge), and await orders to blow it up. Meanwhile, on 1 Dec at the White House, US president Harry Truman receives another request from Douglas MacArthur to use an atomic bomb to end the conflict. On the way to Sumun bridge, 7th Company gets stuck in heavy snow, and when they arrive they see 9th company already attacking it. After that inconclusive night battle, PVA troops take cover during the day and are carpet bombed by US planes. Afterwards they hardly have enough explosive packs to destroy the bridge; and US troops defending it are heavily armed and reinforcements are on their way. The 7th and 9th companies combine and form four units. Their plan is to capture the US commander there and force him to surrender while they also launch attacks from the north and south, as well as through the pipes to seize the pumping house. Their attack starts at night, but Wu Qianli already suspects the US troops may have set a trap for them. Despite the last-minute arrival of a US tank, the Chinese manage to take the bridge, with heavy losses on both sides. However, when the main US reinforcements arrive, the Chinese are forced to retreat, and Wu Qianli is only just rescued in time by his younger brother Wu Wanli (Yi Yangqianxi), who volunteered for duty in 7th Company against his brother’s wishes. Next morning, as they hide out nearby, they’re first bombed with incendiaries by US planes and then strafed. As the US troops start repairing the bridge in time for the retreating 1st Marine Division to use, Wu Qianli realises it’s up to him and his remaining men to somehow save the day.
REVIEW
Half an hour shorter than the first film, and dramatically stronger and more focused, The Battle at Lake Changjin II 长津湖之水门桥 is a cracking, action-filled war movie that’s patriotic but not jingoistic and manages to keep the narrative driven by its characters amid all the gunfire, flames and big bangs. Made at the same time as The Battle at Lake Changjin 长津湖 (2021), and with direction solely credited to Hong Kong veteran Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark], it was originally meant to be the final act of the first film before it proved impossible to cram everything into one movie. In the event, Xu’s segment finally appeared as a separate film on Chinese New Year’s Day 2022, exactly four months after the first one. It took less at the box office but was still the undisputed CNY champion with a massive RMB4.06 billion, over a billion more than the runner-up, crime comedy Too Cool to Kill 这个杀手不太冷静. The whole Changjin saga, totalling just under 5½ hours, has thus earned a combined RMB9.83 billion for a reported production cost of RMB1.3 billion.
In a decision presumably taken before Xu’s segment was spun off, the first Changjin was equally credited to Mainland veteran Chen Kaige 陈凯歌, Xu, and Hong Kong action maestro Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam], all billed as directors and creative producers 监制 despite Xu directing virtually none (if any) of it apart from the trailer for Changjin II tacked onto the end. On Changjin II, as well as sole director, Xu also takes the main credit for editing, styling and visual effects. Mainland veteran Huang Jianxin 黄建新, who co-penned the script (under his usual writing pseudonym Huang Xin 黄欣) and was also chief creative producer 总监制, again gets an associate director credit alongside South Korean action specialist Bak Ju-cheon 박주천 | 朴柱天 (Mojin: The Worm Valley 云南虫谷, 2018) who’s billed for some reason under the name Qin Tianzhu 秦天柱. Hong Kong-born Chinese-Australian film-maker Xu An 许安 [Koan Hui], a longtime Xu Ke associate as well as a director in his own right (League of Gods 封神传奇, 2016), is credited with direction of the B unit, which handled the major sequence of the attack on Hagaru-ri airstrip that takes up most of the opening 20 minutes.
Like the first film, Changjin II is a fairly faithful version of real events that’s been re-tooled as a semi-action vehicle for star Wu Jing 王京, with young actor-singer Yi Yangqianxi 易烊千玺 (there for millennial viewers) playing his younger brother and a host of character actors (there for older audiences) playing PLA veterans. The actual event, in which the Chinese repeatedly destroyed a “bridge” that was on the only escape route for the Americans to the sea, took place in a mountain pass named Funchilin, south of the US airstrip at Hagaru-ri, northeast Korea. The structure was actually just a bridge-like reinforcement to the road where it crossed a water substation on the side of a hill; the substation channelled water from Changjin reservoir down into four large concrete pipes that ran to a turbine in the valley below. The structure, which the Chinese actually blew three times, was named Sumun bridge in Korean and is referenced in the film’s Chinese title (literally, “Lake Changjin: Sumun Bridge”, Sumun 수문 | 水门 meaning “water gate”); it was known in English as Treadway Bridge, after the pontoon-like steel sections helicoptered in by the US to cross the small but crucial gap in the road.
It’s the biggest action film Xu, now 72, has directed since The Taking of Tiger Mountain 3D 智取威虎山 (2014), which also reworked old-style PLA heroics into bracingly effective popcorn action. He shows no signs of fatigue, with a leanly worked script, a swooping, highly mobile camera (especially in the action sequences) and his usual disregard of geography in favour of visual punch. The film’s art directors (led by Lin Weijian 林伟健) have come up with a convincing replica of the actual site, with dramatic visual use of the giant pipes (known as penstocks) amid the hillside scenery. (One sequence, with the ear-splitting sound of a grenade inside one of the pipes, is memorable.) As in the first film, but here even more so, the snow-covered landscape has been convincingly rendered with thousands of tons of white sand, and actors’ frozen faces with impressive special make-up.
There’s no attempt to change the facts that the Chinese mission eventually failed to stop the retreat, but the movie is basically a story of self-sacrifice and patriotic heroism, its theme summed up by the first two lines of dialogue: “Resist US aggression and aid Korea! Defend our country!” 抗美援朝！保家卫国！With his self-deprecating brand of heroism, Wu quietly leads in a phlegmatic, almost kindly way as the leader of the (fictional) 7th Company; Yi, whose self-entitled character was often annoying in the first film, is much more subdued here as the once-cocky youngster, frequently ceding the stage to more colourful veterans. Despite the usual problem of recognising characters under heavy winter clothing and special make-up, it’s still they who drive the film rather than the action, especially as the drama is much more focused than in the first film (with no cutaways to Beijing or higher command) and the dialogue for the US troops is purely functional/grunt-like this time round. Adding some major heft is the score by Li Ye 李野 which is much more varied than most war dramas’ and is especially good during the cat-and-mouse attack on the “bridge” that comes when the film is starting to get samey in its action and visually repetitive with its snowy, grey/white palette.
CREDITS
Presented by Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), August First Film Studio (CN), Huaxia Film Distribution (CN), China Film (CN), Shanghai Film Group (CN), Alibaba Pictures (Beijing) (CN), Beijing Dengfeng International Media (CN). Produced by CPC Beijing Municipal Committee Publicity Department (CN), Beijing Bona Film Group (CN), August First Film Studio (CN).
Script: Lan Xiaolong, Huang Xin [Huang Jianxin]. Photography: Gao Hu, Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse]; Ding Yu (B unit). Aerial photography: Guo Chen. Editing: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark], Mai Zishan [Marco Mak]. Music: Li Ye. Art direction: Lin Weijian; Huo Tingxiao (B unit). Styling: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark]. Sound: Steve Burgess. Action: Lin Feng, Luo Lixian [Bruce Law], Ling Fei; Yang Shuai (B unit). Martial arts: Huang Kaisen, Deng Chaoyou, Che Jianjun. Special effects: Luo Lixian [Bruce Law]. Visual effects: Xu Ke [Tsui Hark]. Historical advice: Wang Shuzeng. Artistic supervision: Zhang Heping. Special thanks: Liu Weiqiang [Andrew Lau], Bao Dexi [Peter Pau].
Cast: Wu Jing (Wu Qianli, 7th Company commander), Yi Yangqianxi (Wu Wanli, Wu Qianli’s younger brother), Duan Yihong (Tan Ziwei, 3rd Battalion commander), Zhang Hanyu (Song Shilun, 9th Corps commander), Zhu Yawen (Mei Sheng, 7th Company political instructor), Li Chen (Yu Congrong, 1st Platoon leader), Han Dongjun (Ping He, sharpshooter), Geng Le (Yang, battalion commander), Du Chun (Zhang, 20th Corps battalion commander), Hu Jun (Lei Suisheng, platoon leader), Wang Likun (Mei Sheng’s wife), Yang Yiwei (He Changgui, 7th Company deputy commander), Li Zhuoyang (Li Chizheng), He Yuefei (Guang Fusheng), Tang Zhiqiang (Zhou Jiexing), Liu Zhiwei (Qi Tianxing), Zhuang Xiaolong (Yang Wenjian), Xin Yubo (Yin Haifeng), Zhang Yue (Liu Zhiyi), Xu Minghu (Shen Hailong, 7th Company deputy commander), Wang Ning (Zhang, division commander), Wang Zhenwei (Wu Qiusheng), Chen Zexuan (Tian Xiangnan, 9th Company scout), Li Xiaofeng (Zhong Dingyi), James Filbird (Douglas MacArthur, US general), John F. Cruz (Oliver P. Smith, US 1st Marine Division commander), Shi Lei (Peng Deqing), Hu Xueliang (Song Qingsheng), He Guangzhi (Gu Cangzhou), Huang Xiaohang (Wei Qianjin), Cao’aorigele (Wangding), Zhang Xiaolei (Fang Huazhang), Song Yuchen (Liang Youdi), Zhang Zhikun (Gao Dashan).
Release: China, 1 Feb 2022.