Ba bai zhuang shi

This movie got my attention because I am a fan of old martial arts movies and the stars (Hsu Feng, Brigitte Lin, Chang Yi) appeared in some of the best.

This is actually a war movie with only a touch of martial arts. It is loosely based on history. There are many reasons for this movie to avoid accuracy of the facts of the Japanese occupation of Shanghai. I will avoid getting into that and simply say this. That occupation was a war crime equal to the Nazi war crimes against the Jews. As long as there is no denial of that fact there is no need to recreate it for a movie. This movie tries to create a point of view of some 800 Chinese heroes that somehow overcame all the tragedy. Instead of showing heroic actions, the movie was totally unrealistic and also boring. The fast forward button at your fingertip is mandatory to watch this mess. Better, don't press "play".

With that said, I feel no need to go into specifics to explain why the movie was a stinker. This review will be quick. I rated it next to nothing and my recommendation is to avoid.

If you like American propaganda war movies ... do not blame this for that same thing. If you have an issue with those things in any movie from any country, you can safely assume you'll have one here too. It is not just the "framing" but also the sound (aka songs throughout) - no pun intended.

It was nice that this was part of the Steelbook of the Remake - and it was quite the interesting throwback. For the time it was made it was quite well done. But if a movie could use an "update" it was this here - and if you've seen the Remake you know what I mean about that. So while this was an interesting curiosity and nice to watch, if you only watch one movie about 800 making a stand ... watch the Remake!

I stumbled up this by accident and decided to give it a go. I'm glad I did. This is the story of the Japanese invasion of China in the late 1930's. The film literally begins with the Japanese invasion, so as the opening credits roll we watch an excellent recreation of the bombing of Shanghai. From there the film recounts the Chinese efforts to drive out the invaders.

I'm at a loss as to why this film isn't better known. Frankly this is a big budget war film of the sort Hollywood hasn't done since the 1960's. Sure the dubbing is a bit odd at times (who chose what voice went with what character?) but this is a slam bang action movie like those that I used to watch on rainy Sundays. This is a movie for those who like Bridge Too Far, Battle of the Bulge, Longest Day. Its also for those who like films like Inglorious Bastards, or From Hell to Victory.

The only real problems with the movie itself was that it can get a bit saccharine and tear jerky at times. The film also can movie a bit too fast to follow who is doing what. Still these are minor complaints and I would love to see this in a well translated widescreen version on DVD.

8 out of 10.

The literal translation of the title of this movie is: 800 Heroes.

The film is based on the true story of a regiment of nationalist troop fighting Japanese forces several times of their strength. Due to the political reasons, such historical topic is avoided in China, and even after the reform, the cautious approach needs outside help from Hong Kong, but such attempts still deserves a great salute.