War movies are not my favourites mainly as the vast majority of them are so strongly one-sided - regardless if Americans or Chinese make the movie. We have decades of pro-western war movies and in the last decade, China has been pumping out pro-Chinese movies. It is why when directors take the time to make a good war movie like Tora, Tora, Tora or Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers / Letters from Iwo Jima then those films so easily stand out compared to so many bad movies.
This movie will never fall into any "great war movies" list but it is worth a watch for a few reasons. It is a good example of Chinese military movie propaganda if you've not seen any other similar movies. Certainly no different than any western propaganda war movie. Some great camera work. Some good acting from some of the Chinese cast. The American cast were rather dull with very negative dialogue that made them out as evil while the Chinese appeared honourable - ignoring that they were helping maintain a dictatorship in Korea.
One thing I enjoyed was the fact it was winter and the filming appears to have been shot in an winter environment although it might be possible that some of the trench scenes were done in a studio. But it gave some realism to the movie. A few times you see Chinese fingers that really look like they are close to frost bitten. However on the other hand, the whites of their camouflage, especially the Americans, were just too white. No sign of dirt esp on the helmets.
Overall there were many tense scenes that worked for me as soldiers fought at each other. Also a movie where almost no one gets out alive.
This movie will never fall into any "great war movies" list but it is worth a watch for a few reasons. It is a good example of Chinese military movie propaganda if you've not seen any other similar movies. Certainly no different than any western propaganda war movie. Some great camera work. Some good acting from some of the Chinese cast. The American cast were rather dull with very negative dialogue that made them out as evil while the Chinese appeared honourable - ignoring that they were helping maintain a dictatorship in Korea.
One thing I enjoyed was the fact it was winter and the filming appears to have been shot in an winter environment although it might be possible that some of the trench scenes were done in a studio. But it gave some realism to the movie. A few times you see Chinese fingers that really look like they are close to frost bitten. However on the other hand, the whites of their camouflage, especially the Americans, were just too white. No sign of dirt esp on the helmets.
Overall there were many tense scenes that worked for me as soldiers fought at each other. Also a movie where almost no one gets out alive.