Introduction

The Eight Hundred (Chinese: 八佰) is a 2020 Chinese historical war drama film directed by and co-written by Guan Hu, and starring Huang Zhizhong, Oho Ou, Jiang Wu, Zhang Yi, Wang Qianyuan, Du Chun, Vision Wei, Li Chen, Yu Haoming, Tang Yixin, and Zheng Kai. The film is based on real life events: the defense of Sihang Warehouse in 1937 Shanghai by Chinese NRA troops during the Battle of Shanghai and the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Also known as Ba Bai (original title).

Refer to Eight Hundred Heroes (1976) and 800 Heroes (1938).

Outline

During the early days of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and on a greater scale World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Shanghai in what became known as the Battle of Shanghai. After holding back the Japanese for over 3 months, and suffering heavy losses, the Chinese army was forced to retreat due to the danger of being encircled. Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan of the 524th Regiment of the under-equipped 88th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, led 452 young officers and soldiers to defend Sihang Warehouse against the 3rd Imperial Japanese Division consisting of around 20,000 troops on a heroic suicidal last stand against the Japanese under an order by Generalissimo of Nationalist China, Chiang Kai-shek.

The decision was made to provide a morale boost to the Chinese people after the losses of Beijing and Shanghai, and helped spur support from the Western powers, who were in full view of the battle from the International Settlement in Shanghai just across the Suzhou Creek.

Cast

• Huang Zhizhong as Lao Hulu
• Zhang Junyi as Xiao Hubei
• Oho Ou as Duan Wu
• Du Chun as Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan
• Zhang Cheng as company commander Lei Xiong
• Wang Qianyuan as Yang Guai
• Jiang Wu as Lao Tie,
• Zhang Yi as Lao Suanpan
• Zhang Youhao as Xiao Qiyue
• Vision Wei as Zhu Shengzhong
• Tang Yixin as Yang Huimin
• Hideo Nakaizumi as Colonel Konoe Isao
• Li Jiuxiao as Dao Zi
• Hou Yong as the professor
• Liang Jing as the professor’s wife
• Li Chen as a soldier
• Xu Jiawen (Augusta Xu-Holland) as Eva
• Yu Kailei as Luo Yangchan
• Xin Baiqing as Fang Xingwen
• Cao Weiyu as Yu Hongjun
• Yu Haoming as Shangguan Zhibiao, company commander
• Liu Xiaoqing as Sister Rong
• Yao Chen as He Xiangning
• Zheng Kai as Chen Shusheng, deputy squad leader
• Huang Xiaoming

Production

Guan Hu had been preparing for the film for 10 years. The Eight Hundred is the first Chinese film or commercial Asian film shot entirely on IMAX cameras. The production team had built a real set of 68 buildings with an area of 133,333 square metres (1,435,180 square feet) in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province. The investment amount of the film is as high as RMB 550,000,000 (US$ 80,000,000).

Principal photography started on 09 September 2017 and wrapped on 27 April 2018.

Soundtrack

A theme song for the film titled “Remembering” (苏州河) was written by Bob Ezrin, Shridhar Solanki, Cheng Zhang and Isabel Yue Yin based on the melody of the Londonderry Air and was performed by Andrea Bocelli and Na Ying. The theme song had both an English and Mandarin version. The theme song was accompanied by the film’s main theme and score written by Rupert Gregson-Williams and Andrew Kawczynski.

Release

The film was originally scheduled to premiere on 15 June 2019 during the prestigious opening slot of the Shanghai International Film Festival but was pushed back to 05 July, due to “consultation between the production team and other entities”. Before the withdrawal, the Chinese Red Culture Research Association, a non-governmental group, held an academic conference on filmmaking where attendees voiced opinions on the film. Attendees did not agree with the portrayal of the National Revolutionary Army, saying the film failed to portray “the class oppression within the ranks of the Kuomintang army, the misdeeds of its officers and its evil oppression of the people”. According to a report published on the social media platform WeChat, the participants complained that the film excessively glorified the Kuomintang army.

Afterwards, the film’s screening at the Shanghai film festival was cancelled. Jia Zhangke, a prominent filmmaker, criticised the decision, saying on Sina Weibo “[things] cannot be done like that for the moviemaking business”.

The film was then delayed yet again from its 05 July 2019 release date. Pushed back by over a year for failing to pass the censors, on 02 August 2020, the producers announced that the film was scheduled for release on 21 August 2020 nationwide in China. The theatrical version is said to be 13 minutes shorter than the one that would have screened in 2019 at the Shanghai film festival.

Box Office

Previews of the film were screened on Friday 14 August, making $2.1 million, then on Monday 17 August and Tuesday 18 August, making about $7.6 million each night for a preview total of $16.8 million. It then made $40 million on its official opening day. It went on to gross a total of $116 million (RMB 803.2) in its opening weekend (including previews), the biggest debut of 2020 up to that point. In calendar year 2020, The Eight Hundred had grossed more in a single territory than any other release, having made $366 million in China. In total, it earned $484.2 million, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2020.

Trivia

• One line of the film mentioned that the 800 from the 88th division have received German military equipment.
  • That is only partial information as that division was trained by German military advisers who had been helping China’s government since 1927.
• The warehouse can still be visited today and has a museum about the battle.
• Originally scheduled to premiere on 15 June 2019, but called off one day earlier, citing ‘technical difficulty’, with the premiere date unannounced.
  • Media argued the cancellation was due to the producers’ lack of political sensitivity.
  • This year marked the 70th anniversary of the Communist Party victory against the Nationalists.
  • The producer company’s stock price fell by 8% the day the premiere was called off.
• Despite the massive body count depicted in the film, the actual battle at the Defence of Sihang Warehouse resulted in just 10 Chinese fatalities and only 1 Japanese death.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s):
  • Hu Guan
• Producer(s):
  • Xiaobei Cao … co-executive producer
  • Edward Cheng … co-executive producer
  • Luyuan Fan … co-executive producer
  • Ruoqing Fu … co-executive producer
  • Jie Li … co-executive producer
  • Xiaoping Li … co-executive producer
  • Jie Lian … co-executive producer (as Lian Jie)
  • Jing Liang … executive producer / general producer
  • Yu Liang … co-producer
  • Jian Liu … co-executive producer
  • Liming Liu … co-executive producer
  • Qiongfang Liu … co-producer
  • Zhonglun Ren … co-executive producer
  • Ying Shuling … co-executive producer
  • Donghai Sun … co-executive producer
  • Li Tingwei … co-executive producer
  • Chunlin Wang … co-executive producer
  • Zhonglei Wang … executive producer / general producer
  • Sarah Zhang Wei … co-executive producer
  • Weiran Xiao … co-executive producer
  • Jerry Ye … general executive producer (as Ning Ye)
  • Yingxue Zeng … co-producer
  • Dajun Zhang … executive producer
  • Siyang Zhang … co-producer
  • Wenbo Zhang … co-executive producer
  • Weijie Zhu … co-executive producer
  • Wenjiu Zhu … co-executive producer / producer
• Writer(s):
  • Hu Guan … (screenplay by)
  • Rui Ge … (screenplay by)
  • Kun Hu … (associate screenwriter)
  • Huang Dongbin … (associate screenwriter)
• Music:
  • Rupert Gregson-Williams
  • Andrew Kawczynski
• Cinematography:
  • Yu Cao … director of photography
• Editing:
  • Yiran Tu
  • He Yongyi
• Production:
  • Alibaba Pictures Group
  • Beijing Enlight Pictures
  • Huayi Brothers Media
• Distributor(s):
  • Golden Screen Cinemas (Malaysia, 2020)(theatrical)
  • Mirada Distribution (Argentina, 2022)(theatrical)
  • Notorious Pictures (Italy, 2021)(theatrical)
  • Shaw Organisation (Singapore, 2020)(theatrical)
  • BGFilm (Turkey, 2020)
  • CMC Pictures (United States, 2019)
  • GEM Entertainment (Non-US, 2019)(multi-territory)
  • IPA Asia Pacific (Thailand, 2021)
  • Koch Media (Germany, 2021)(Blu-ray)
  • Koch Media (Germany, 2021)(DVD)
  • Look Film (United States, 2021)
  • Youplanet Pictures (Spain, 2021)
• Release Date: 14 August 2020 (China).
• Running time: 149 minutes.
• Rating: 15.
• Country: China.
• Language: Chinese, Japanese, and English.

Video Link(s)