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DVD:
Blu-Ray:

• Cert:
• Cat.no: MTD5376
• Running time: 119 minutes
• Year: 2007
• Pressing: 2008
• Region(s): 2, PAL
• Chapters: 12 plus extras
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Languages: Mandarin
• Subtitles: English for the hearing impaired
• Widescreen: 2.35:1
• 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
• Macrovision: Yes
• Disc Format: DVD 9
• Price: £17.99
• Extras: Trailer, Making Of
• Vote and comment on this film:

Director:

Xiaogang Feng (Assembly, The Banquet, Cell Phone, The Nobles, A World Without Thieves)

Producers:

John Chong, Xiaogang Feng, Zhongjun Wang and Guan Yadi

Heng Liu

Cast :

Captain Gu Zidi: Hanyu Zhang
Zhao Erdou: Chao Deng
Sun Guiqin: Yan Tang
Wang Jincun: Wenkang Yuan
Maocai Jiang: Baoqiang Wang
Colonel Liu: Jun Hu
Luo Guangtian: Hengu Fu
Jiao Dapeng: Fan Liao
Political Officer: Quan Ren

Starting in 1948, during one of the bloodiest battles in the Chinese Civil War, Captain Gu Zidi (Hanyu Zhang) gives the KMT Army, aka the National Revolutionary Army, a chance to surrender but you know that's not going to happen and so into battle they go.

Things don't go to plan and with his right-hand man, the Political Officer, dead he takes it out on one of the enemy who by then have surrendered, thus going against the grain of how prisoners of war should be treated. After stealing their uniforms following taking control of their base, the entire 9th Company from the 139th Regiment of the Central Plains Field Army are reprimanded by being sent to the front line, with Gu being locked up for three days in addition to this.

They're sent to secure the mines in the South Bank of the Wen River, which doesn't look like too bad a place as they start off, but the first problem is that the 9th Company is now seriously depleted in number and the second is that they seriously underestimate what is to come. The only blessing, for Gu at least, is that he now has a new Political Officer, a teacher called Wang Jincun (Wenkang Yuan) who's forever writing letters home.

Prior to heading off for the mission, Gu confirms his orders to his superior, Colonel Liu, "Always listen for the assembly bugle call. Fall back whenever we hear it."

Liu instructs, "If you don't hear the bugle call, even if you're the last man standing, you will keep fighting?" and Gu replies, "Yes, sir".

Assembly is a film in two parts, with Gu's life both during and after the war. It's difficult to go into the content any further without spoiling a great deal of it, and I didn't know much about the Chinese Civil War myself prior to watching it, but I agree from what I read that the first half is similar to Saving Private Ryan, with the captain and the right-hand man who's a newbie.

When it comes to the acting and the writing in this movie, it's faultless on both counts and to all intents and purposes is a must-see. If you're wondering why I didn't give it 10/10, well, I'm not familiar with the subject matter so it's difficult to get a full handle on the politics involved throughout.

The film is presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and the picture is fantastic, recreating the scenes of battle with many incredible scenes, including an explosive one as the camera circles around Gu and then showing us how he continues with his life in the years to come. I'm going to use the word 'incredible' again but I can't think of another word to describe the Dolby Digital 5.1 sound as it's not that it'll just make you jump out of your seat, but the explosions of mortar attacks and everything else will blow your longue apart and make your subwoofer reverberate for days!

The extras aren't big in number, just a Theatrical Trailer (1:20), presented in around 2.00:1 anamorphic and which contains spoilers so don't watch it before the main movie, plus an engaging 67-minute Making Of in 15 parts, featuring key cast and crew such as Hanyu Zhang (Gu), writer Heng Liu and director Xiaogang Feng. This isn't as easy a watch as the main film because it's easier to digest the language and subtitles in a continuing story rather than as a series of one-off quotes about the making of the film.

The film contains a mere 12 chapters, which proves that zero thought has been put into that aspect of this DVD, since I always work on a rule of thumb of one every five minutes as a reasonable figure and a 2-hour film with so much going on needs far more than 12. That said, it's good that subtitles are made an option for a foreign-language film, rather than burning them into the print as we'd have experienced on video all those years ago. The main menu has some subtle animation as as being scored with a looped piece of music from the film.

Before the menu even appears, though, we see trailers for The Banquet, Days of Glory, Saints and Soldiers plus a promotion for the fact that Days of Glory plus Assembly are available in Blu-Ray, but, Momentum, we are long past the age of the rental video where this practice was commonplace. You now have somewhere these should go: the extras menu. Please don't make them stick out like this.

FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS
OVERALL

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2008.

DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: