Death and Glory in Changde | |
---|---|
Traditional Chinese | 喋血孤城 |
Simplified Chinese | 喋血孤城 |
Hanyu Pinyin | Dié Xuè Gū Chéng |
Directed by | Shen Dong |
Written by | Ma Weigan Lian Xiufeng Shen Dong Peng Daocheng |
Produced by | Chen Weiping Shen Dong Han Sanping Chen Jiancheng Zhou Pixue |
Starring | Ray Lui Yuan Wenkang Ady An |
Cinematography | Yu Xuejun |
Edited by | Yang Xiaoying |
Production company | August First Film Studio |
Distributed by | China Film Group Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | China |
Languages | Mandarin 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.
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.
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]
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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.
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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
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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.
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.
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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.
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