Member laagi Posted January 19, 2022 Member Share Posted January 19, 2022 (edited) First time director Fan Yeng's war drama. Joining the long line of countelss war themed movies being churned out of China with no end in sight whatsoever. This time focusing on the Shandong Railway Corps and their exploits to sabotage the japanese controlled railways, operating out of Lincheng train yard. This is by no means a big war epic but more of a small time drama focusing on a small group of people during a war ridden time. For this reason alone it works rather well as we get attached to the characters. Led by an always charismatic Zhang Hanyu as Hong it is really Fan Wei as Old Wang that steals the show! The cinematograhpy and an overall grey dark looming mood to is very well captured. Not to mention everything takes place during Winter and at times even I felt cold just looking at it. The soundtrack is accordingly with most consisting of orchestral tracks. Probably people looking for an action fest will be left disappointed. As mentioned beforehand it's a drama first and foremost. There is some bloody scenes incl. torture. Also they do go out with a bang! Although to me the ending was the weakest part. Now overall I'd recommend this movie BUT there is the usual problems these chinese productions come with. One dimensional japanese villains this time around led by Hiroyuki Mori as Fujiwara. While his performance can feel menacing at times in the end he's just reduced to another one of those japanese baddies. Which is really unfortunate but not totally surprising. This is topped off with an almost Rambo like scene in the end. I'm not even sure if it's worth mentioning the propaganda in the movie. Anybody watching these things should be fairly expecting this by now. One scene in particular that stuck with me at least in a negative way is shortly before the group leaves for their ultimate assignment they all take an oath and pledge to the CCP promising to sacrifice their life for the cause. It's these things which always leave a bit of a sour taste. Edited January 21, 2022 by laagi 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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