Hey look at that, THE FUTURE.
Anyways. ASSEMBLY kicked my ass, hard. Now I'm not a steely sort of guy, in fact a lot of films will molest my soul in a myriad of ways (I think I cried more at the end of A SINGLE MAN than I've cried before), but war films tend not to faze me that much. Of course there are a few isolated moments, but in general I find war films unemotive. There are a handful of war films that do get me (COME AND SEE, WELCOME TO DONGMAKGOL and TAE GUK GI amongst them) and ASSEMBLY is probably going to join their ranks.
Starting out in 1948 during the thick of the Chinese Civil War ASSEMBLY follows a Squad Captain called Gu Zidi who is assigned with his regiment of 47 men to guard a mine. The mine finds itself as the focal point of a massive land battle and because of Zidi's refusal to call a retreat his entire company is killed. Stricken with guilt over the death caused by his inaction Zidi devotes himself to honour through combat.
If that sounds vaguely action filmy then it shouldn't, the first fifty minutes of the movie are fairly action packed but the action is visceral and bracing and just plain nasty. Lots of headshots and full body explosions and it kind of compounds the futility of Zidi's last stand, the last hour is far more of a character study and aside from a few missteps
Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
I found Gu Zidi meeting the Bugler who should have signalled a retreat to be fairly silly
I think the film does a great job of painting a picture of the kind of guilt inaction can cause. Really worth a look.
