Assembly

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. Plot In 1948, during the Huaihai Campaign of the Chinese Civil War, Captain Gu Zidi leads the 9th Company of the 139th Regiment of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) to capture a town controlled by the National Revolutionary Army (NRA), during which they sustain heavy casualties from intense enemy firepower. Angered by the death of his political commissar, Gu attempts to execute the NRA soldiers who surrendered. As a result, he is thrown in jail for three days by his superior, Colonel Liu Zeshui. In jail, he befriends Wang Jincun, a foot soldier and former teacher who has been jailed for cowardice. Upon his release, Gu and his 46 surviving men are sent to defend a coal mine on the bank of the Wen River near Tai'an, Shandong. They are ordered to hold their positions until they hear a bugle call for assembly. With Liu's permission, Wang, being the most educated man in the company, becomes the 9th Company's new political commissar. Almost immediately after fortifying their position, the 9th Company comes under heavy attack by NRA forces. After fending off a wave of enemy infantry and supporting armour and subsequently destroying two enemy tanks, the 9th Company is left with only a handful of men. At this point, some soldiers claim to hear the bugle call in the distance. Gu, who has been temporarily deafened by an explosion, refuses to believe them and orders them to fight to the death. The entire 9th Company is killed except Gu, who is knocked unconscious by a tank shell. PLA forces eventually recapture the area and find Gu, unconscious and heavily wounded, while wearing a NRA uniform he had stolen when he was trapped behind enemy lines. At a military hospital, Gu tries to explain that he is a PLA captain and that, after being knocked unconscious, he had awakened and pretended to be a NRA soldier in order to steal food nearby, and then bombed an enemy fuel depot before falling unconscious again.