Plot summary for Feng Xiaogang's 'THE ASSEMBLY CALL'

While The Banquet is doing remarkably well in China word is out about Feng Xiaogang's next project title 'The Assembly Call'. Principal photography for his war epic will start in Manchuria on October 6. There has been no word on the cast because the director is using a cast largely made up of unknown actors. They are currently enduring boot camp in preparation for the film. The setting for the film begins in 1948, at the turning point of the last Chinese civil war and end in 1956, three years after the end of Korea War. From what has been reported below in the plot summary of the film.

A company of soldiers are ordered to fight (probably for defending a position) until they hear the assembly call. But the call never comes and everybody dies, except one. Years later, the lone survivor starts searching for the remains his fallen comrades and trying to prove that they all died like real heroes. The film is inspired by short story "The Law Suit" (literal title), which was written by Yang Jinyuan, based on a true story. The script is written by Zhang Heng (Zhang Side).

Feng Xiaogang has also amassed incredible talent to contribute to this film. The CG effects will be handled by Technicolor, which also worked for Feng's The Banquet; the sound effects will be done by the people who worked in Saving Private Ryan; and a South Korean team from another Korea War epic Taegukgi Hwinalrimyeo will be in charge of the character makeup.

I'm curious about storyline structure on this. I wonder how Feng is going to do it. Will it be series of flashbacks as the lone survivor comes upon the remains of each soldier and he reminisces about each comrade? Or will he bookend the entire tale with the lone survivor visiting the site of the battle and leaving the site after he is done? I'm not worried about the technical side of it. Feng is a proven director and so must be the talent he has hired on for this film. The structure of the narrative will be interesting. I think it would be easier on the audience and perhaps even more effective to punctuate each moment of each solider's life by slowing down the narrative and cutting back and forth between the battle and the search for the remains. But I'm not a screenwriter. Let's just wait and see what Feng does.

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