The latest war blockbuster in the making is "Jin Gang Chuan," directed by three critically acclaimed directors – Guan Hu, Frant Gwo and Lu Yang – and starring stellar cast including action star Wu Jing.
According to the film's marketing company, it will tell a rarely-heard story from the Korean War and is designed to be a popular patriotic film to inspire the Chinese people on the 70th anniversary of the war.
The Korean War broke out in June 1950. When a multinational force led by the United States crossed the 38th parallel between North and South Korea, bringing imminent threat to China, the People's Volunteer Army joined the war that October, allied with the DPRK to secure the safety of the newly-founded People's Republic of China.
Guan Hu, director of critically-acclaimed "Mr. Six," took Chinese war films to another level with his recently released war epic "The Eight Hundred," which had grossed 2 billion yuan by Tuesday and become the most successful Chinese film of the year so far. He is on a tight schedule to shoot his "Jin Gang Chuan" in Dandong, northeast China's Liaoning province.
At the same time, Frant Gwo, the director of one of China's highest-grossing films and the biggest sci-fi epic "The Wandering Earth," is shooting his part of the story in Beijing. Lu Yang, who earned his reputation for his new-style wuxia masterpiece "Brotherhood of Blades," is also working in Dandong, but on a different segment of the film from Guan.
The new film is set for release within this year and a conceptual poster was released last week. The producers include China Film Co. Ltd., Seventh Art Pictures, and Huaxia Film Distribution Co.
Shooting started at the end of July, according to sources speaking to China.org.cn, but the producers are still eager to release it in October to commemorate the Korean War anniversary, which means a lot of pressure, challenges, tight schedules, close cooperation, precise arrangements and stunning speed in filming and post-production when the directors are piecing together their different sections.
Source: china.org by zhang rui