Night Attack (2007)
July 1937. The Chinese people are suffering under the hands of advancing Japanese troops, bent on the intimidation of civilians, destruction of property and widespread panic. To combat this threat a small regiment is sent to investigate the Japanese forces and discover a huge warehouse full of supplies. Choosing to strike while the iron is hot they undertake a dangerous solo mission. But will this night raid break them or make them?
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So much average
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
A Chinese film with subtitles. It starts with troops from the Eighth Route Army (former Red Army and future People's Liberation Army) arguing with a Nationalist unit over possession of a train. The Eighth Route Army man insists they give it up, part of the price for the anti-Japanese alliance. In the same spirit, he insists that they be polite to a female reporter from a conservative Chinese newspaper whose attitudes are often irritating. (And romance later blossoms, as you'd expect in a film.) You see realistic problems of command and combat. The troops are shown as brave but sometimes ignorant: they have only a hazy idea about how aircraft work and refer to a Japanese air base as a 'nest', as if these were magic birds. They also have to figure out if the base can be attacked, and make mistakes which alert the enemy and make the task much harder.It's probably much more like real war than most war films. And is supposed to be based on a real incident. It should have more background – that the Nationalists and Communists had been at war a few years back, and that it was mostly expected that they would fight again if Japan were defeated, as in fact happened.