Death and Glory in Changde

Last updated
Death and Glory in Changde
Death and Glory in Changde.jpg
Film poster
Traditional Chinese 喋血孤城
Simplified Chinese 喋血孤城
Hanyu Pinyin Dié Xuè Gū Chéng
Directed byShen Dong
Written byMa Weigan
Lian Xiufeng
Shen Dong
Peng Daocheng
Produced byChen Weiping
Shen Dong
Han Sanping
Chen Jiancheng
Zhou Pixue
Starring Ray Lui
Yuan Wenkang
Ady An
CinematographyYu Xuejun
Edited byYang Xiaoying
Production
company
August First Film Studio
Distributed by China Film Group Corporation
Release date
  • 19 August 2010 (2010-08-19)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryChina
LanguagesMandarin
Japanese

Death and Glory in Changde is a 2010 Chinese war film based on the events in the Battle of Changde in 1943 during the Second Sino-Japanese War. The Chinese title of the film literally means "bloodbath, isolated city". Directed by Shen Dong, the film starred Ray Lui, Yuan Wenkang and Ady An in the lead roles. The film was released in mainland China on 19 August 2010.

Contents

Plot

In October 1943, during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army approaches Changde from Shashi and Yueyang by crossing the Yangtze and Xiang rivers, and surrounds the Chinese city. Yu Chengwan, a division commander in the Chinese National Revolutionary Army, and his men have received orders to defend Changde to the death. Most of Changde's civilian population have evacuated, leaving behind Yu and his troops to defend the isolated city.

Feng Baohua, a company commander in the division, allows Erhu, a Miao youth, to join his company. Erhu, who turns out to be an excellent sharpshooter, looks up to Feng as a role model. The Chinese forces fight bravely on the frontline, holding off wave after wave of Japanese troops outside Changde until all the external defences have fallen. They retreat into the city and continue to prevent the invaders from advancing beyond the gates. By then, the defenders are already running low on ammunition and supplies but they continue to put up fierce resistance, to the point of secretly salvaging unexpended rounds from the bodies of dead soldiers at night. Feng's fiancée, a singer called Wanqing, is determined to accompany him, so she becomes a nurse and helps to attend to the wounded. Feng and Wanqing are married and they spend one night together.

Changde eventually falls when the Japanese commander Isamu Yokoyama, acting under pressure from his superiors, reluctantly approves the use of chemical and biological weapons against the Chinese forces. As the defenders retreat further into the city, fierce fighting takes place in the streets and alleys. Erhu's elder sister is killed by a Japanese soldier who breaks into their house. In one skirmish, Feng is shot and mortally injured when he tries to use a bundle of explosives to kill a Japanese machine gunner in a concealed position. He succeeds in his attempt but dies in the ensuing blast. In the meantime, the Japanese have captured the Chinese medical officer and the wounded Chinese soldiers and made them line up near the city gate while handing out a Japanese flag to each of them. The Japanese attempt to record these "scenes of victory" on camera, but eventually have all the prisoners gunned down when they refuse to play along with their captors.

Yu Chengwan writes a farewell letter to his wife before donning his battlegear and joining his surviving men as they fight their way out of Changde. Off screen, it is stated that only 83 of the 8,000 defenders survived. The Chinese defeated the Japanese and retook Changde a few days later. Yu was court-martialled for abandoning his post at Changde and was sentenced to two years imprisonment, but was acquitted and released after spending four months in prison.

Cast

Reception

Matthew Lee of Twitch Film wrote:

It's certainly melodramatic, simplistic and overtly nationalist, but it's also a pleasing ninety minutes or so of fairly undemanding, handsomely produced period action with a couple of particularly explosive setpieces, and it doesn't whitewash history anywhere near as much as you might expect. ... The cast give solid, if unexceptional performances across the board, all of which lends the whole thing a simple humanity most main melody films don't even bother with. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Revolutionary Army</span> Military unit

The National Revolutionary Army, sometimes shortened to Revolutionary Army (革命軍) before 1928, and as National Army (國軍) after 1928, was the military arm of the Kuomintang from 1925 until 1947 in China. It also became the regular army of the Republican era during the KMT's period of party rule beginning in 1928. It was renamed the Republic of China Armed Forces after the 1947 Constitution, which instituted civilian control of the military.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Changde</span> Battle during the Second Sino-Japanese War

The Battle of Changde was a major engagement in the Second Sino-Japanese War in and around the Chinese city of Changde (Changteh) in the province of Hunan. During the battle, the Imperial Japanese Army extensively used chemical weapons.

The following is the order of battle of the forces involved in the Battle of Shanghai, during the opening stages of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The following units and commanders fought in the Defense of the Great Wall of the Second Sino-Japanese War. List as of 20 March 1933.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhao Dengyu</span>

Zhao Dengyu or Chao Teng-yu was a Chinese general, distinguished for his service at the beginning of the Second Sino-Japanese War. He was born in a peasant family in Heze, Shandong Province in 1898. He first served as a soldier in the troops commanded by Feng Yuxiang in 1914. After 1922, he distinguished himself on the battlefield and rose through ranks and became successively platoon leader, company commander, battalion commander, regiment commander, brigade commander and division commander. In 1930, he was transferred to be the commander of the 109th Brigade, 37th Division, 29th Army.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feng Zhanhai</span>

Feng Zhanhai, or Feng Chan-hai, was one of the leaders of the volunteer armies resisting the Japanese and the puppet state of Manchukuo in northeast China. Feng was born on November 6, 1899. At eighteen he joined the Dongbei Army, and later entered a military school graduating in 1921. After he graduated, he was successively a platoon leader, company commander, and battalion commander. At the time of the Mukden Incident and Japanese invasion of northeast China he was a colonel commanding a regiment of the Jilin Guards Division.

Below is the order of battle for the Battle of Beiping-Tianjin, called the Peiking-Tientsin Operation in pinyin spelling, a series of battles fought from 25 July through 31 July 1937 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. It was called the North China Incident by the Japanese.

The Order of battle Beiping–Hankou Railway Operation

The Inner Mongolian campaign in the period from 1933 to 1936 were part of the ongoing invasion of northern China by the Empire of Japan prior to the official start of hostilities in the Second Sino-Japanese War. In 1931, the invasion of Manchuria secured the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo and in 1933, Operation Nekka detached the province of Rehe from the Republic of China. Blocked from further advance south by the Tanggu Truce, the Imperial Japanese Army turned its attention west, towards the Inner Mongolian provinces of Chahar and Suiyuan, with the goal of establishing a northern China buffer state. In order to avoid overt violation of the Truce, the Japanese government used proxy armies in these campaigns while Chinese resistance was at first only provided by Anti-Japanese resistance movement forces in Chahar. The former included in the Inner Mongolian Army, the Manchukuo Imperial Army, and the Grand Han Righteous Army. Chinese government forces were overtly hostile to the anti-Japanese resistance and resisted Japanese aggression only in Suiyuan in 1936.

Order of battle for the Battle of Taiyuan in the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Battle of Xuzhou was fought in May 1938 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War.

The Battle of Toungoo was one of the key battles in the Battle of Yunnan-Burma Road in the Burma Campaign of World War II and Second Sino-Japanese War. The failure of the Chinese to hold the city of Toungoo opened up the route for the Japanese to make their lunge to Lashio around the allied flank and into the Chinese rear.

<i>Assembly</i> (film) 2007 Chinese film

Assembly is a 2007 Chinese war film written by Liu Heng and directed by Feng Xiaogang. A co-production between China, Hong Kong and South Korea, the film starred Zhang Hanyu, Deng Chao, Yuan Wenkang, Tang Yan, Wang Baoqiang, Liao Fan, Hu Jun, Ren Quan and Li Naiwen. The film, ostensibly portraying an anti-war theme, was first released on 20 December 2007. It won the 2008 Hundred Flowers Awards and the 2009 Golden Rooster Awards for Best Film.

The following units and commanders fought in the Battle of Northern and Eastern Henan.

The Zhejiang-Jiangxi campaign was a military campaign fought from May to September 1942 as part of the Second Sino-Japanese War. This article in as order of battle, listing the present Chinese and Japanese military forces.

The Battle of Hengyang 23 June – 8 August, 1944 was fought between Chinese and Japanese forces in mainland China during World War II. Although the city fell, Japanese casualties far exceeded the total number of Chinese troops defending the city. It has been described as "the most savage battle ever fought in the smallest battlefield with the greatest casualties in the military history of the world." Japanese military historians equate it to the most arduous battle in the Russo-Japanese War, calling it a "Battle of Ryojun in South China." A Chinese major newspaper of the day compared it to the Battle of Stalingrad.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zhang Lingfu</span>

Zhang Lingfu was a high-ranking general of the Chinese National Revolutionary Army. He successfully fought against the Communists and the Imperial Japanese Army. In 1947, his unit was surrounded by Chinese communist forces commanded by Field Marshal Chen Yi and General Su Yu. Zhang was unable to breakout from the communist encirclement because the relief efforts headed by his nationalist colleagues did not arrive in time, and he was killed in action in the Menglianggu Campaign on May 16, 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Isamu Yokoyama</span> Japanese officer and war criminal (1889–1952)

Isamu Yokoyama was a general in the Imperial Japanese Army, commanding Japanese ground forces in China during the Second Sino-Japanese War and Pacific War.

The 36th Rifle Division was a division of the Red Army and then the Soviet Army. The division was formed in 1919 as the 36th Rifle Division and fought in the Russian Civil War and the Sino-Soviet conflict of 1929. In 1937 it became the 36th Motorized Division. The division fought in the Battles of Khalkhin Gol. It was converted into a motor rifle division in 1940 and fought in the Soviet invasion of Manchuria in World War II. Postwar, it became a rifle division again before its disbandment in 1956. The division spent almost its entire service in the Soviet Far East.

Drawing Sword is a 2005 Chinese historical and Second Sino-Japanese War based TV series directed by Zhang Qian and Chen Jian, written by Du Liang and Jiang Qitao, and starring Li Youbin, He Zhengjun and Zhang Guangbei. It is based on the novel Drawing Sword by Du Liang. The series was first broadcast on CCTV-1 in China from 13 September to 28 September 2005.

References

  1. Lee, Matthew (8 May 2011). "DEATH AND GLORY IN CHANGDE review". Twitch Film. Archived from the original on 29 April 2014. Retrieved 8 February 2013.