Battling stereotypes

[Photo provided to China Daily]

And, the director promised the upcoming production is "purely a war movie" rather than a film with a revolutionary theme.

"In the past, Chinese films would make great efforts to create a tense atmosphere and focus on the top commanders when depicting a campaign," he explains. "Filmmakers liked to combine stories to explain the background to the battles, while the battles themselves lacked concrete plots. However, when we show the battle, some of the historical background is self-evident."

Chairman Mao Zedong, who is usually a protagonist in wartime films, thus relinquishes the leading role in the film to two Chinese generals, Peng Dehuai and Zuo Quan. Several characters are also used to better reflect the campaign from the point of view of ordinary soldiers.

"The time has probably passed when it is necessary to have similarity of appearance," says Liu Zhibing, the actor who plays Zuo, recalling the preference of previous Chinese movies to use actors who looked like the historical figures they were portraying.

"To bring the names in the history books alive, it's more important to convey their spirit and understand them as a common person rather than a hero," Liu says.

It took two months to finish all the location shooting, and one scene depicting the sabotage of a railway line involved more than 1,000 PLA soldiers as extras.

A short trailer shown at last week's news conference suggests the film will also portray the campaign from Japanese army's points of view and the grand battle scenes seem to be high-budget.

The actual budget remains a secret. However, when domestic cinema giant China Film Group Corporation, August First Film Studios (best known for its numerous productions of military theme) and newly-booming Alibaba Pictures are all involved in a film, something looks certain: It had a lot of money behind it.

La Peikang, general manager of the China Film Group Corporation, says such films are worth the money. "We will let the past tell the future. Our big screens full of entertainment still need our predecessors' courage and uprightness to nurture patriotism in the younger generation."