The Battle at Lake Changjin

长津湖

China, 2021, colour, 2.35:1, 176 mins.

Directors: Chen Kaige 陈凯歌 (unit I), Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark] (unit II), Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam] (unit III).

Associate directors: Huang Jianxin 黄建新, Bak Ju-cheon 박주천 | 朴柱天, Ning Haiqiang 宁海强.

Rating: 7/10.

Above-average Korean War blockbuster has powerful moments but is let down by its sheer, exhausting length.

STORY

A fishing village in Huzhou, Zhejiang province, eastern China, autumn 1950. PLA company commander Wu Qianli (Wu Jing) brings home the ashes of his elder brother Wu Baili, a company commander who died a revolutionary martyr. He is greeted by his parents (Li Jun, Cao Yang) and by his younger brother Wu Wanli (Yi Yangqianxi), a restless hothead who also wants to join the PLA. As soon as he arrives, Wu Qianli receives orders to report for duty the following morning. (On 15 Sep, during the Korean War, over 70,000 US-led troops, under the general Douglas MacArthur [James Filbird] had landed at Incheon, on the west coast of Korea, near Seoul, and sent planes to carpet bomb the north of the country up to the border with China. MacArthur had boasted he would recapture the whole Korean peninsula from North Korean troops by Thanksgiving, late November. By 4 Oct the [North] Korean People’s Army had retreated north of the 38th Parallel and US troops were ready to pursue them. In Beijing, Mao Zedong [Tang Guoqiang] had wondered whether they would then cross the Yalu river into China, especially as the US already had troops in Taiwan. He and Peng Dehuai [Zhou Xiaobin], commander of the Northwest Military Area, had decided to establish troops from the [Chinese] People’s Volunteer Army at Changjin lake in the mountainous northeast of Korea, to fight off any US advance. On 7 Oct US planes had bombed the 38th Parallel prior to crossing it to take Pyeongyang, capital of North Korea. Mao Zedong had appointed Peng Dehuai supreme commander of the Chinese response.) At the PVA’s headquarters in Taeyudong, North Korea, Peng Dehuai hears US forces are continuing to head towards the Yalu river, and that the US’ 1st Marine Division, under its commander Oliver P. Smith (John F. Cruz), has reached Weonsan, on the east coast, with 25,000 soldiers. Smith plans to assemble the troops near Changjin lake, forming the eastern front of a two-pronged pincer attack northwards on either side of the impassable Nangnim mountains. Peng Dehuai decides to take on the other front, the western one, himself; he requests extra PVA troops from China to meet the eastern front assembled around Changjin lake. Song Shilun (Zhang Hanyu), commander of the PVA’s 9th Corps, is put in charge of the latter, and its various companies, including Wu Qianli’s Seventh, assemble in northeast China. Wu Qianlu then discovers Wu Wanli has secretly followed him from home; against his wishes, he’s ordered to take Wu Wanli into his company as a raw recruit. The cocky youngster takes a while to learn his place among the 7th Company veterans. As soon as they arrive at Ji’an, near the North Korean border, the company is ordered to take some urgently needed radio transmitters and codebooks to the front; when a US spy plane flies overhead, they quickly leave, taking only a few cold-weather padded uniforms. After they cross the Yalu river into North Korea, US planes bomb the bridge and then their train, forcing everyone to take cover in a vast boulder field where they’re strafed by US planes. Heading into the snow-covered mountains they help out some 6th Company troops who’ve been pinned down while trying to destroy a US signals tower. A huge battle follows, including hand-to-hand fighting and tank warfare. At a US camp at Hagaru-ri, just south of Changjin lake, Oliver P. Smith is castigated by the gung-ho Edward P. Almond, commander of X Corps, for his slowness but replies that it is not going to be a quick war as Douglas MacArthur claims. Wu Qianli and his men deliver the transmitters and codes as ordered but are quickly ordered to go to Sinhung-ri, by Changjin lake, to help in breaking the pincer attack by US troops. At the 9th Corps’ frontline headquarters, the temperature is -31C, and the troops still don’t have proper padded uniforms. On 23 Nov, as US troops celebrate Thanksgiving with a traditional dinner, Wu Qianli and his men eke out their frozen potatoes in the mountains. On 27 Nov the fighting around Changjin lake starts, as the 9th Corps tries to divide the US troops. Serious damage is inflicted on the US’ 31st Infantry Regiment, the so-called “Polar Bears” commanded by Allan D. Maclean (Kevin Lee), but at a terrible cost to three companies of the PVA’s 9th Corps.

REVIEW

Some five years in the planning, and reportedly costing RMB1.3 billion, Korean War film The Battle at Lake Changjin 长津湖 finally emerges in an almost three-hour version supervised by three big-name directors and in the same year as several CPC centenary productions. Centred on a brutal, but now little-remembered, struggle that turned the tide against the US during the Korean War, it’s an above-average military blockbuster that’s let down by a running time that’s simply exhausting: there’s enough action here for two separate movies, especially as Our Heroes don’t even arrive at the titular location until more than halfway through. Despite its sheer length, Changjin has some memorable setpieces, strong lead playing by an ideally cast Wu Jing 吴京, the usual cameos by half the male Mainland film industry, and enough character development between the explosions to keep the viewer interested on a human level. After a month on release, it’s so far taken RMB5.39 billion, just behind the two biggest-ever Mainland grossers Hi, Mom 你好，李焕英 (2021, RMB5.41 billion) – which it looks set to overtake – and another Wu vehicle Wolf Warrior II 战狼II (2017, RMB5.69 billion). [Final tally was RMB5.77 billion.]

War movies from any country are never rigidly faithful to the facts, and Changjin, while sticking to the general outline of events in late 1950, follows the common practice of compressing events and having a fictional subplot and characters to hook the audience. Here it’s the 7th Company of the (Chinese) People’s Volunteer Army, commanded by a certain Wu Qianli (Wu Jing) and including his restless younger brother Wu Wanli (Mainland boybander-actor Yi Yangqianxi 易烊千玺) who’s unbelievably forced his way into the group. (Really.) Wu Jing turns in another of his trademark performances as a phlegmatic, dedicated but kindly warrior, while Yi, clearly there (as in Chinese Doctors 中国医生, 2021) for millennials to identify with, is stuck with a character who’s initially annoying and way too self-entitled but finally almost justifies his inclusion in the film. But it’s the strong supporting cast that keeps the film afloat dramatically, with Hu Jun 胡军 and Li Chen 李晨 especially good as experienced platoon leaders. Among the host of semi-cameos as real-life characters, Zhang Hanyu 张涵予 and Duan Yihong 段奕宏, both strong physical presences, are notable.

The event is also known as The Battle of Chosin Reservoir, after the old Japanese name for the lake, and came at a time when US-led forces were pushing back the North Koreans’ takeover of the south and rushing headlong towards the border with China. After having just won a civil war and established the PRC, Mao Zedong had very real fears of US troops crossing the Yalu river into Chinese territory, so PLA troops were despatched to help push them back. (Just as the US-led troops were technically a UN force aiding the South Koreans, so the PLA troops were renamed the People’s Volunteer Army to avoid any official war between China and the US.) The rout of US forces around Changjin/Chosin came at a heavy cost to both sides (partly because of the extreme winter cold) but led to a humiliating, Dunkirk-like evacuation of US troops from the North, essentially settling the Korean War two-and-a-half years before fighting officially stopped in mid-1953.

The fact that the film, which centres on a major military defeat of the US just after winning the war in the Pacific, has appeared at a time of growing surface tensions between the two countries is partly coincidental, as the movie had been in preparation for several years and shooting was delayed for some 10 months due to the Covid pandemic. The screenplay by Lan Xiaolong 兰晓龙 (a veteran writer of war dramas) and Huang Jianxin 黄建新 (a safe pair of hands for official blockbusters) is more a celebration of Chinese grit and ingenuity with smaller resources than a put-down of cocky adventurism by an over-resourced US; and the leading US characters (including Douglas MacArthur and Oliver P. Smith) are marginally less simplistic than in similar war movies. Reportedly, the original director was to have been Hong Kong veteran Liu Weiqiang 刘伟强 [Andrew Lau], who’d already handled PLA blockbuster The Founding of an Army 建军大业 (2017); but when the start of shooting was delayed, Liu switched to COVID drama Chinese Doctors and three big-name veterans – the Mainland’s Chen Kaige 陈凯歌, plus Hong Kong’s Xu Ke 徐克 [Tsui Hark] and Lin Chaoxian 林超贤 [Dante Lam] – were brought in as directors/creative producers 监制, with veteran film-maker Huang overseeing everything as chief creative producer 总监制 and also directing some scenes himself. Liu gets a “special thanks” at the end of the film, along with another veteran Hong Kong d.p./director, Bao Dexi 鲍德熹 [Peter Pau].

As in The Sacrifice 金刚川 (2020), another multi-director Korean War drama starring Wu, who exactly directed what is not specified. Chen, Xu and Lin each had separate units, in addition to the film’s four B units, and Huang co-ordinated the resources of the main three. Principal shooting finally started (under Chen) on 24 Nov 2020, with Xu starting on 18 Jan 2021 and Lin on 15 Feb; filming ended in late May. Relatively little interior work was done at Hengdian Studios, south of Shanghai; most of the film was shot outside, and exteriors were mostly in Zhejiang province with fake snow rather than in China’s genuinely snowy northeast. Chen directed most of the opening hour in which the central characters are developed as 7th Company assembles and crosses the border by train into North Korea; these scenes contain the most human material, and provide the substructure for the rest of the movie.

Action maestro Lin (Operation Mekong 湄公河行动, 2016; Operation Red Sea 红海行动, 2018) directed the tense, atmospheric section – with its visual gymnastics and gliding camera – in which 7th Company is strafed by US planes as they hide in a sea of boulders after getting off the train. He also directed the film’s central setpiece, starting 65 minutes in, where 7th Company helps some 6th Company troops take out a US signals tower at night. This impressive half-hour section, which includes brutal hand-to-hand fighting and even tank battles, is enough to sustain a whole film; so, unfortunately, by the time 7th Company reaches the lake in question, the audience is already sated with action. The final section, considerably grimmer, has the extra twist of the sub-zero temperatures being as big a killer as the enemy, but the actual battle around the lake loses some of its force from coming just too late, after so much other material. Xu’s work on the film included a whole section centred on a vital road by a water substation, Sumun bridge 水门桥, where Chinese forces tried to cut off the US retreat. This was subsequently cut out for reasons of time; trailed at the end of the film, it will reportedly form the basis of a follow-up, credited to the same cast and crew (see poster, left) and due out next year. [It was released four months later, as The Battle at Lake Changjin II, with main direction credited solely to Xu.]

Despite using at least six directors (including Ning Haiqiang 宁海强, Sky Fighters 歼十出击, 2011, and 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) and six DPs (including top names like Mainlander Luo Pan 罗攀 on Chen Kaige’s unit), the film has a remarkably cohesive look, as well as a superior score (by Wang Zhiyi 王之一, But Always 一生一世, 2014, and Liang Haoyi 梁皓一, Operation Red Sea) that’s not just the usual action wallpaper. For the record, the events were referenced in two low-budget US films of the era, Retreat, Hell! (1952, dir. Joseph H. Lewis) and Hold Back the Night (1956, dir. Allan Dwan), though from a purely American perspective and largely centred on the US retreat to the sea as an honourable withdrawal. More recently, the 2014 South Korean blockbuster, Ode to My Father 국제시장, directed by Yun Je-gyun 윤제균 | 尹济均, started with the troop evacuation in Dec 1950 at Heungnam.

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]. Script planning (B unit): Zhao Ningyu. Photography: Luo Pan (I); Gao Hu, Xie Zhongdao [Kenny Tse] (II); Huang Yongheng [Horace Wong], Cai Wenlong (III); Ding Yu (B unit). Editing: Li Dianshi (I); Mai Zishan [Marco Mak] (II); He Yongyi (III). Music: Wang Zhiyi (I); Li Ye (II); Liang Haoyi (III). Art direction: Lu Wei (I); Lin Weijian (II); He Zhiheng (III); Huo Tingxiao (B unit). Styling: Chen Tongxun (I, II); Lv Fengshan (III). Sound: Wang Danrong (I), Steve Burgess (II), Yin Jie (III). Action: Lin Feng, Luo Lixian [Bruce Law], Ling Fei (II); Lin Chaoxian [Dante Lam], Dong Wei (III); Yang Shuai (B unit). Historical advice: Wang Shuzeng. Visual effects: Wang Lei (I); Yang Wenjie, Jiang Taijun, Danny S. Kim (III). 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), Hu Jun (Lei Suisheng, platoon leader), Huang Xuan (Mao Anying, Mao Zedong’s son/”Liu”, HQ secretary), Ou Hao (Yang Gensi, 3rd Company commander), Shi Pengyuan (Zhang Xiaoshan, young soldier in 7th Company), Li Mincheng (Ke Dachuan), Tang Guoqiang (Mao Zedong), Yang Yiwei (He Changgui, 7th Company deputy commander), Zhou Xiaobin (Peng Dehuai, Northwest Military Area commander), Lin Yongjian (Deng Hua, PVA deputy commander), Wang Ning (Zhang, division commander), Liu Jin (Zhou Enlai), Lu Qi (Deng Xiaoping), Wang Wufu (Zhu De), Geng Le (Yang, battalion commander), Cao Yang (Wu Qianli’s mother), Li Jun (Wu Shili, Wu Qianli’s father), Wang Tonghui (stationmaster with severed limb), Ai Mi (female soldier with red scarf), Shi Haozheng (platoon leader), Xu Minghu (Shen Hailong, 7th Company deputy commander), Liu Sha (Liu Shaoqi), Wang Jian (Ren Bishi), Wu Tieliang (Dong Biwu), Zhang Xiaojun (Chen Yun), Wu Weidong (Peng Zhen), Zhou Huilin (Luo Ronghuan), He Qiang (Nie Rongzhen), Zhao Yongzhan (Gao Lan), Wang Hongtao (Deng Zihui), Cheng Guodong (Lin Boqu), Lin Jinglai (Li Fuchun), Chu Shuanzhong (Zhang Wentian), Zhang Yiming (Hu Qiaomu), Lu Wei (Yang Shangkun), Tian Zheng (Ye Zilong), Zhang Ningjiang (Lei Yingfu), Gang Yi (Hong Xuezhi, PVA deputy commander), Wang Yanyang (Yang Feng’an), Cai Xin (Gao Ruixin), Sun Boyang (staff officer), Guo Jian (Tao Yong), Li Yize (deputy chief staff officer), Dai Lu (chief staff officer), Na Zhidong (Tan Jian), Liu Xinjie (Xie Youfa), Li Bo (Zhang Yixiang), Han Bowei (Liao Zhengguo), Jia Xinggang (Zhang Renchu), Yan Peng (Li Yaowen), Shi Lei (Peng Deqing), Wang Guanqi (Liu Haotian), Wang Zhigang (staff officer), Wang Zilong, Zhang Chenyin, Wu Dongjian (security guards), Li Zhuoyang (Li Chizheng), Liu Zhiwei (Qi Tianxing), He Yuefei (Guang Fusheng), Tang Zhiqiang (Zhou Jiexing), Hu Xueliang (Song Qingsheng), Xin Yubo (Yin Haifeng), Zhang Yue (Liu Zhiyi), He Guangzhi (Gu Cangzhou), Xie Jingda (Chen Chusheng), Zhang Lei (Li Maocai), Liu Jintong (Xuan Qiang), Huang Xiaohang (Wei Qianjin), Cao’aorigele (Wangding), Zhang Zhikun (Gao Dashan), Zhang Xiaolei (Fang Huazhang), Song Yuchen (Liang Youdi), Pan Zhanzhan (Wei Qianjin), Sun Yi (Xiaoye), Zhuang Xiaolong (Yang Wenjian), Wang Zhenwei (Wu Qiusheng), Chen Zexuan (Tian Xiangnan), Li Xiaofeng (Zhong Dingyi), Zhao Yihan (Wang Kai), Zhang Yubo (Wei Wei), Zhang Xiu (Jia Minsheng), Tang Linsen (Cui Xiaofei), Zhu Guangming (Tang Maolin), Yin Yuanzhang (Liu Shaozi, Huzhou boatman), Jiang Xiaolin (military messenger), Zhang Zhiqin (commander), Cheng Yi (commander’s orderly), Yang Can (orderly in train carriage), James Filbird (Douglas MacArthur, US general), Kevin Lee (Allan D. Maclean, US 31st Infantry Regiment commander), John F. Cruz (Oliver P. Smith, US 1st Marine Division commander).

Premiere: Beijing Film Festival (Opening Film), 21 Sep 2021.

Release: China, 30 Sep 2021.