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Ruminations on the new film entitled “Sound the Assembly”
In speaking of movies by Director Feng Xiao Gang, my first reaction is repugnance arising out of the ingrained perception that his films are as crudely indecent and sometimes lascivious in style as the movie of cell phone emanates. In that movie, Feng wryly made out a story of how a woman climbed up the rung of power to be the chief television anchor by fair means or foul. Why the film was under fire was not due to the unscrupulous facts it revealed, ostentatiously exaggerated as it may be. But rather much of the controversy was drawn to how it was represented. Many commentators excoriated the film to be blatantly unrefined in delineation contrary to accepted social tastes and aesthetic values. In other words, the way in which the film was shot carry an implication to the effect that it may be the hidden rule for an underdog to play foul to be successful thus eulogizing inappropriate behaviors in society.
By the film “sound the assembly”, director Feng try to make a totally different film both in the sense of content and representation. He preferred a brand-new cast of unknown actors and actresses to the repertory of the so-called maestro and perhaps more importantly he knowingly seek to explore in-depth the precious fortes and good points in human nature in a more realistic way. Shot against the background of domestic war in China, the films was about a company of soldiers fighting valiantly until the last man with the captain alone survived. But he found out all his fraternal brothers in the company was not recorded as martyrs but lost personnel in combat whose whereabouts were unknown. Against all odds, the captain, probed by the sense of equity and justice, spent his entire life trying to get the authority to pay to the soldiers their debt of honor. Having made relentless and unremitting efforts, he finally succeeded at long last.
By focusing more on the positive facets of humans, Director Feng try to come across the audience a clear message that laudable characters are the real driving forces that shape one’s destiny. The film is a blockbuster as is shown by the box office, yet its success fully proves that a successful film is one that will strike a chord with empathizing audiences and that demonstrates in an objective fashion the defects, foibles as well as the virtues and merits in an undulating vicissitudes of human life.
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