description of Chinese characters (mostly in People's Liberation Army) in the 1979 Sino-Vietnam Border Clash. Based on the novel of the same name, which was also produced as a play, radio and TV show.
Extremely popular in China in that the author accurately depicted the corruption in the regime. The son of a high ranking female official who joined the rank before the communist take over was in the unit that were to be sent to the front, and the female official was able to get through the often inefficient system, reaching the headquarter of the army commander to ask him not to sent her son to the front. This not only enraged the army commander in the movie, but also the audience who experienced the corruption in real daily live of Chinese people.
Nearly twenty years ago when the political situation of China is far less liberal than what it is now, there was rarely any chance for public to criticize the government, and the reason why this movie was so popular was that it showed what people wanted to say through the mouth of army commander in the movie, critisizing the corruption.
The author of the original novel got away with it because he was a member of People's Liberation Army and in his novel, there was a happy ending: the son who finally lived upto the expectation and there were good cadres like the army commander, who did the right thing by sending the son to the front, along with his own son, who died in the war.
