Clarence Tsui: Assessing the New Film, "On the Mountain of Tai Hang"
The Communist Party demands that it be the centrepiece for the commemoration of "the 60th anniversary of the victory in the anti-fascist war". Its launch in Hong Kong was attended by Secretary for Justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie, veteran patriot Xu Simin and an array of uniformed People's Liberation Army officers. It's hard to imagine that it's all about a film featuring Tony Leung Ka-fai.
On the Mountain of Tai Hang depicts what the mainland's official war historians see as a crucial period in the eight-year anti-Japanese struggle. Set in the first three years of the war, the movie portrays how Red Army commander-in-chief Zhu De swept into Shanxi province and prevented a Japanese victory in a region left with only depleted Kuomintang units as defence.
The bombastic rhetoric that accompanies the film is explained when the credits roll: the master-mind behind the epic is none other than Bayi Film Production Factory, the filmmaking wing of the People's Liberation Army.
So far, so understandable. But where does Leung, whose recent roles have been as an adulterous husband (Dumplings), a fogeyish newspaper editor (A-1 Headline) and a lost-in-love paparazzo (Fear of Intimacy), fit into the scheme of things? It's all about national unity, says director Wei Lian. "The anti -Japanese struggle was, after all, a war fought by the whole Chinese nation - so it's natural that we have people from the three lands on the two shores of the Taiwan Strait participate."
An accomplished actor he might be, but Leung's role as the one-armed Red Army colonel He Bingyan is more symbolic than anything. The same could be said of Taiwanese actor Liu De-kai, who plays Hao Mengling, a KMT general who dies while defending one of the key passes leading to the strategically important town of Taiyuan.
On the Mountain of Tai Hang can easily be interpreted as a political vehicle. Party propaganda has certainly moved on - this production is being marketed as an artistic equivalent to Saving Private Ryan - but the fervour remains in making the past a party-loving, patriotic parable of the present.
While much of the film's emphasis is on the resistance the Chinese put up against the aggressors, it's the love-hate relationship between the communists and the KMT that comes under close scrutiny. In Tai Hang, a meeting between generals of the two armies is delivered as a highlight in the narrative. Zhu (played by Wang Wufu) is portrayed as a humorous and affable statesman, who manages to win over even the most suspicious KMT cadres.
On the Mountain of Tai Hang depicts what the mainland's official war historians see as a crucial period in the eight-year anti-Japanese struggle. Set in the first three years of the war, the movie portrays how Red Army commander-in-chief Zhu De swept into Shanxi province and prevented a Japanese victory in a region left with only depleted Kuomintang units as defence.
The bombastic rhetoric that accompanies the film is explained when the credits roll: the master-mind behind the epic is none other than Bayi Film Production Factory, the filmmaking wing of the People's Liberation Army.
So far, so understandable. But where does Leung, whose recent roles have been as an adulterous husband (Dumplings), a fogeyish newspaper editor (A-1 Headline) and a lost-in-love paparazzo (Fear of Intimacy), fit into the scheme of things? It's all about national unity, says director Wei Lian. "The anti -Japanese struggle was, after all, a war fought by the whole Chinese nation - so it's natural that we have people from the three lands on the two shores of the Taiwan Strait participate."
An accomplished actor he might be, but Leung's role as the one-armed Red Army colonel He Bingyan is more symbolic than anything. The same could be said of Taiwanese actor Liu De-kai, who plays Hao Mengling, a KMT general who dies while defending one of the key passes leading to the strategically important town of Taiyuan.
On the Mountain of Tai Hang can easily be interpreted as a political vehicle. Party propaganda has certainly moved on - this production is being marketed as an artistic equivalent to Saving Private Ryan - but the fervour remains in making the past a party-loving, patriotic parable of the present.
While much of the film's emphasis is on the resistance the Chinese put up against the aggressors, it's the love-hate relationship between the communists and the KMT that comes under close scrutiny. In Tai Hang, a meeting between generals of the two armies is delivered as a highlight in the narrative. Zhu (played by Wang Wufu) is portrayed as a humorous and affable statesman, who manages to win over even the most suspicious KMT cadres.