Ba bai

It's 1937. Japanese forces have attacked the city of Shanghai. The foreign concessions become an island of civilization among the destruction of the city. Around 800 Chinese soldiers have fortified a warehouse across a canal from the concession area. They are mostly soldiers armed with the latest weapons from Nazi Germany. They are joined by some stragglers and a squad from the countryside. They hold out against overwhelming Japanese forces for months in front of an audience of international press and their fellow Chinese citizens.

First, the movie spends too much time showing scared and incompetent soldiers. Some of it is useful but it really makes it frustrating to root for the Chinese soldiers. The long-haired guy is really annoying. It may work if he's the only one but the movie seems to relish showing the Chinese soldiers as weak scared little boys. The balance is off. The real force consists of mostly well-trained troupes but the camera spends more time with the others who get collected. The flag section is a good high point except throwing that many bodies onto the flag is ridiculous. It's more effective to concentrate on one guy picking up the fallen flag and putting it back up. Finally, this uses too much slow motion especially in the last act. It could have more effective to let the brutal action overwhelm the senses. As a true war story, this is primed for a great telling but this is only partially good. Westerners may not like the portrayal of Nazis and I'm surprised that Communist China is willing to make Nationalist soldiers into heroes. Again, the Chinese soldier fighting with Nazi gear is going to be weird for a western audience. As a Chinese war movie, this is better than most. It looks great and it's compelling to watch.

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 visuals of this film are artistically cinematic and very gritty. It's a beautiful picture with tons of on screen action. The director adds so many simultaneous events in each frame that it kept my eyes busy scanning the periphery to take it all in. This film has high budget written all over it. From the sets, customs, cgi, special effects and large cast it's very impressive. You can also see a lot of American and European cinematic influences in the film. Especially during the flag raising which was reminiscing of Iwo Jima flag raising. The gory firefights and sniper kills gets your heart running.

Where the film falls short are the many overdrawn patriotic speeches and at first they are cool but become long on the tooth in this 3+ hour film which actually felt like four hours or more. Many scenes don't add much to the story and I think distracts from the film. I think this film could use an editor to shorten the film a bit and clear up the story.

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.

Thrilling war drama with plenty of action and connections with the main characters

Did not know of this part of Chinese history so made the film more interesting.