Assembly

Arresting, compelling and poignant, Assembly is a war flick that primarily eschews the heavy hitting guts and glory approach, focusing instead on the fundamentals of unflagging loyalty, camaraderie, pride and honour.

Based on a true story, it tracks the life, and consequent struggle, of Gu Zidi (Zhang Hanyu), an army captain fighting for the Chinese in the Civil War of 1948, to have the valour of his fallen comrades recognised by the ruthless military echelons.

After rejecting the enemies request for surrender in the opening skirmish, Gu Zidi and his 46 man company are ordered to hold an untenable position as punishment for his battlefield indiscretion. Undermanned and relatively ill-equipped, he is told to listen for a bugle call signalling his company’s retreat. Under constant enemy attack, the 139th Battalion are wiped out. With Gu Zidi the sole survivor, he makes it his life’s work to establish and preserve the memory of his fallen comrades and have them recognised as the heroes they were.

Director Feng Xiaogang’s foray into the war genre provides some brutal, frantic fight scenes as well as an insight into the annals of Chinese history. Aided and enhanced by breakneck camera work and some superb effects, the film’s opening is unforgiving in its portrayal of war and is relentless with it, as it follows the battalion’s costly attempt at taking a town.

In the same way that Band Of Brothers portrayed soldiers as ordinary men with heroism thrust upon them, adding a dose of realism and tenderness, and Saving Private Ryan examined the ideology, stubbornness and futility of warfare, Assembly’s primary focus is on remembrance as opposed to glorified heroism. It’s also a relatively fierce critique of the internal politics that blight establishments, such as the military, in exploiting people’s willingness to fight for a cause.

Assembly doesn’t tread new ground, nor does it break any, but it offers a compelling, profoundly humane look at the mentality of war and those brave many who fight them.

Released on 5th May 2008 by Metrodome Distribution.

Written by Reef Younis.