While filmmaker Guan Hu’s latest, The Eight Hundred, wasn’t the only film that suffered sociopolitically-driven obscurity at the hands of Chinese censors last year, it definitely endured more than its fair share of obscurity.
With the suprise cancellation of both its Shanghai International Film Fest premiere and a summer screening window, all was up in the air with no one the wiser as to the fate of its release, and the emergence of Covid-19 definitely didn’t ease things any.
Thankfully, Hu’s ambitious Sino-Japanese blockbuster war epic was finally granted an August 21 release as of a week ago. Thus, a final trailer is now online which you can view above, featuring a cast that lists Ou Hao, Jiang Wu, Zhang Yi, Wang Qianyuan, Du Chun and Li Chen among others.
At the end of the 1937, during Battle of Songhu, the 524th Regiment of the 88th Division of the KMT Revolutionary Army stayed in the Sihang warehouse in Shanghai, separated from the concession by a river. They fought for 4 days and nights by their own, while foreigners and rich peoples are watching them from the other side from the river; to encourage themselves and fear the enemy, the 400 heroes claim they have 800 people.
Reportedly shot entirely on IMAX cameras and with a crew sharing mix credits on films like X-Men: Days of Future Past, The Matrix and The Hobbit to name a few, the ambition is definitely there, and it’s a shame it’s taken this long. Now we wait to see what happens with a U.S. release on our end along with other territories.
