From the director of “Banquet” comes a Chinese civil war film that is being compared to its foreign predecessors such as “Taegukgi , Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.” Feng Xiaogang's Assembly was the opening film at last year's Pusan International Film Festival, and tickets were sold out in record time once they were made available online. “…Feng managed to bring about a movie which goes beyond the usual ra-ra, and shows us that a movie with universal themes can also come out from what is essentially a war movie based upon China's tumultuous era after WWII….” The title refers to “assembly call”, a call to retreat for a group of army who is ordered to defend a position.


It's China's answer to "Saving Private Ryan." Feng Xiaogang's ("A World Without Thieves," "Big Shot's Funeral") 80-million-yuan (US$11 million) movie "Ji Jie Hao" ("Assembly") is the country's first commercial war epic about China's civil war. It's tough and realistic, showing some Chinese soldiers who are afraid of death - not like the perfect cardboard heroes of many films. It seeks to be entertaining, patriotic, and a box-office success.
"The stuff we saw in the past was a bit fake. We have to overcome this problem. It must be realistic," Feng said recently.
The famed director says "Assembly" is a significant step away from other Chinese mainstream movies of that genre, in which the good guys are mostly too good and noble to be true. Shot in northeast China, "Assembly" revolves around the heroics of a People's Liberation Army unit during the civil war in the 1940s, but Feng said the movie also shows soldiers' human feelings and fears in battle. In one scene, a soldier urges his superior officer to order a retreat when the unit comes under heavy fire, despite orders from higher up to stay put. "It's understandable if people become weak and afraid in the face of war. It's a normal condition. To not fear death is abnormal," Feng said while in Hong Kong to promote the movie. The director also said he avoided demonizing the enemy. The focus wasn't the enemy, he said, and he tried not to dwell tediously on "the meaning of sacrifice" in the film that features realistic, bloody gun battles. He said he watched English-language war films, including Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," Clint Eastwood's "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima," along with "The Thin Red Line," "Enemy at the Gates" and John Woo's "Windtalkers."
While Feng doesn't think he matched the technical sophistication of "Saving Private Ryan," he thinks the quality of the war scenes in his movie are better than those in Eastwood's. "We were figuring things out as we were shooting," he said. Shanghai Daily


Tips to watch subtitle .SUB and .IDX format :
VLC Media Player:
1. Keep all the files (.avi, .sub & .idx) in the same folder
2. Play normally with VLC media player , go to VIDEO on top of VLC and choose SUBTITLE TRACK at the dropdown menu and select the appropriate subtitle .

ConverXtoDVD:
1. “Add” the .AVI file from the movie folder into the ConvertXtoDVD (the .IDX and .SUB file extensions should follow automatically providing all of them have the same exact file name). For non techie : FILE-NAME.FILE-EXTENSION
2. “Convert” and “Burn” normally
3. Use the button on your DVD or the remote control to select the appropriate subtitle for your viewing.