The 800

In 1937, WW2 has started for China, with the Japanese invasion. On the southern front, the Chinese army has abandoned a ruined Shanghai, except for one warehouse. This is defiantly defended by one regiment of about 800 troops, where seasoned professionals are reinforced by raw recruits of varying eagerness. The warehouse has 2 attributes: used as a bank vault, it has extra-thick walls; and it is across a small river from the English Concession. The foreign concessions are considered foreign territories by the Japanese, who try to avoid touching them. Thus we have the juxtaposition of a battlefield with a bustling, well-lit area, where crowds hang around the riverside street to watch the action, and the privileged (including foreign press photographers) watch from the balconies.

The movie alternates between the warehouse action, and the events in the concession. In and around the warehouse, the action includes close combat, snipers, and occasional speeches. It is refreshing to see a Chinese action movie without martial arts. While there is blood and bandages, it is not the gorefest some western directors seem to like. There some of the Chinese soldiers are featured, whereas on the Japanese side only one commander had any speaking role. The switching to the concession side gives the audience a break from the action, and keeps the narrative fresh.

This was based on actual historical events, and the movie included a final shot of the warehouse - with a backdrop of modern Shanghai skyscrapers. I read that the movie's opening was delayed, so that scenes of the national government could be cut. This government, or its successors, still govern the rebel island of Taiwan. But for the flag-raising scene, it was still the historically-accurate sun-in-sky national flag that went up.

The Good: I think it's safe to say that the film's highlight is the expertly crafted and powerful action scenes. This movie is clearly trying to recall and homage Chinese war stories of old and it does a really good job of doing that, visually. The action scenes are fantastic and I was surprised as to how tasteful the blood and gore was here; I sorta went into this expecting a brutal ride.

Initially, I felt the film's lack of character development was a negative. On reflection, I think this might be a cultural bias on my part and also not entirely appropriate for the story. American war films tend to focus on individual(s) for storytelling and emotional purpose. I think this approach, focusing on a group of basically unremarkable people, is actually a really effective way of making this battle feel like...well, a battle in a larger conflict. That while this moment mattered, ultimately, the war was not won that day.

I also have to applaud the set and costume designers...WOW. The International Concession set is so immaculate and bursting with life, I felt transported into the past when watching those scenes. The contrast with the abandoned, decaying warehouse is truly striking.

The Bad: I'm a little conflicted as to whether or not to include this, but the dub of this movie is absolutely terrible. I felt like I was watching extended video game cut scenes; the voice actors almost never sound appropriate for what it happening on screen. Again, I don't know if this is fair or not, but the dubbing made what was supposed to be emotionally powerful into a farce.

However, this criticism will be universal, whether you're watching the English dub or Chinese original. This movie is as subtle as a brick through a window. I understand what this particular time in history means for Chinese people, but damn...is this as propagandistic as they come. It's sometimes hard to take seriously and yes, I acknowledge culture plays a part in this.

The Ugly: On that point, this movie's ra-ra patriotism may be a bit refreshing for audiences who have come to expect war films to be, by default, "anti-war." Surely this movie isn't pro-war, but it's realistic in that it acknowledges war is a part of the human story and sometimes, the unjust thing to do is to shy away.

This is a Remake about a historical event. It may be a bit hyped and exaggerated and has quite the nationalistic take (pride wise) to it - something US movies also like to do to the same degree. Hopefully you don't have an issue with that, otherwise you'd deprive yourself of quite the intense and harrowing movie! And visually ... I mean wow, just wow.

How it all was built, the amount of preproduction it took, the stunts and so many other things make me want to say "great job". The violence is quite vivid and there is a lot of blood and brutal depictions of injuries and death. Amongst all that there still is character development (and some cliche and over dramatized things too of course)! That is not an easy feat to achieve ... but the movie does it. And even with 2,5 hours (and an odd 15 minutes missing or so probably will be forever lost, since the director had to cut them to get a rating in China) the movie never feels like it is too long ... very well done indeed!

This movie is internationally known as "The Eight Hundred". It is based on true events during the Japanese invasion of Shanghai, whereby the focus is put on the famous "Defense of the Sihang Warehouse".

The "Sihang Warehouse" is located directly next to the foreign concession of Shanghai. This means that all attacks by the Japanse army on the soldiers in the warehouse, are in direct view of all people watching from the concession. As such, many reports are available of the historic events surrounding this battle.

Since the movie often switches back and forth between different events, it is important to know how all events fit in the overall battle. It is therefore that - before watching this movie - I highly recommend you first read the Wikipedia article titled "Defense of the Shihang Warehouse". In my opinion, reading this Wikipedia article will not spoil the movie, but instead provide the necessary background for watching this movie. Amongst others, it explains why the chinese soldiers were dressed the same as german WW2 soldiers.

Due to the movie not having a main character, you as a viewer will have an additional challenge of understanding what's going on. During some events I had the idea someone was put center stage, all but to find out that he is not seen for the next 15 minutes or so... I think it would have been very beneficial if the movie would have for instance a voice-over - e.g. Someone who was there - whom explained what was going on.

One big plus of this movie are the extremely detailed scenes. It is just a 'feast for your eyes'. If you for instance pause the movie, you often will be able to discover details (in the background) which you wouldn't have seen otherwise. Overall, the result is a very convincing portrayal of Shanghai during WW2.

In coming to a conclusion, I think we have here a movie that misses some necessary ingredients to make the viewer fully understand what is going on. The director and writers were probably so accustomed to the historic events, that they assumed that everyone else would also be as aware as they are... Why on earth they did not chose for having a main character is beyond me. As such, this movie is often a challenge to watch. Especially the first 15 minutes, I personally was left in limbo of what exactly I was watching. Giving it a second try after reading up on Wikipedia helped me enormously.

Taking everything into account - including the fact that this movie learnt me quite some new and interesting things about WW2 - I decided to score this movie with 7.3/10. Resulting in an IMDb score of 7 stars, I think this movie could have easily gained 1 (or even 2) additional stars if more effort was put in guiding the viewer better in understanding the overall situation. I recommend to first read the Wikipedia article "Defense of the Sihang Warehouse"

After enjoying the trailer, and being a fan of Asian cinema, I went to the movies to watch The Eight Hundred.

As the movie is based on a true story and true events, it was very interesting to see a different kind of war film that's not Hollywood-ised and the great high quality production certainly was impressive.

The movie is gripping, intense with solid tension building throughout the movie, lots of action guns and bombs with great performances that I believe the actors deserve great credit for.

The writing and direction by Guan Hu was very impressive with nice stylised cinematography.

My own dilemmas with the movie was the pacing, story beats and focus on the central story. The movie felt too split everywhere into different perspectives and doesn't focus on a singular character or group to follow the story properly.

There was no clear goal or focus for us as the audience to keep an emotional core building. The essence of Chinese patriotism is the front runner story but I felt it took away from my attachment to following a core protagonist/s with their story instead of the theme or essence of patriotism.

There's lots of invasion attempts and warfare action with some heartfelt emotional scenes, but not a clear storyline direction that makes it understandable to follow.

Make sure to give this movie a go, it's definitely an experience!