War epic 'Unbreakable Spirit' survives after crises
- By Zhang Rui
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E-mail China.org.cn, May 19, 2018
The almost dead film project "Unbreakable Spirit" revives itself and will hit Chinese screens in August after a series of crises and twists, the producers announced on Thursday.
This upcoming blockbuster, directed by Xiao Feng, stars a shining cast including international stars Liu Ye, Bruce Willis, Song Seung-heon, William Chan, Fan Wei, Wu Gang, Feng Yuanzheng and many others. In addition, Academy Award-winning actor Adrian Brody, as well as Chinese superstars Nicholas Tse, Fan Bingbing, Chen Daoming also have a special appearance. Yet, it has encountered various difficulties, leaving it almost being unable to make it to theater screens.
"Unbreakable Spirit," formerly entitled "The Bombing," tells the story of a period in Chinese history when the Japanese invaders launched a continuous bombing campaign on Chongqing from February 1938 to December 1944, resulting in huge casualties and losses in the city. The film was originally scheduled to release in 2015 to mark the 70th anniversary of the victory over the anti-fascist war.
"Unbreakable Spirit" managed to hire the best cast and crew it could get and adopted advanced 3D technologies to shoot the film, which includes 2,300 special effects shots. It is rare for a film to use the latest 3D technology to shoot such a large-scale air battle. At the same time, the production team also invited the world-famous London Symphony Orchestra to perform the film score.
However, the large-scale production has suffered setbacks due to various kinds of crises. On April 19 this year, while the director celebrated his birthday, he shared some stories behind the scenes.
According to Xiao, the film has been in the works for eight years. In 2010, he was hired as director for the film, and he was misdiagnosed with cancer in 2014, and he feared he couldn't finish the film. In 2015, some investors started withdrawing funds. Since February 2016, the crew had "no funds" to continue their work.
In the darkest period, the crew only had 15,000 yuan (US$2,356) left in their bank account and could not even pay for a hotel for Hollywood star Bruce Willis when he came to China. The director recalled he used all his savings from his own bank account to save the project from collapsing. To maintain his integrity as a director, he and his team also refused many requests and offers to buy out the film and copyrights.
The major investing player behind "Unbreakable Spirit" was Shanghai Kuailu Investment Group once led by business tycoon Shi Jianxiang. But the company was mired in a huge scandal for box office fraud and financial malpractice in regard to the film in 2016, which led to a series of disastrous consequences for the company. This scandal also hit Xiao Feng's film.
After all this, Xiao Feng joked miserably that he might become the "poorest director with the most debt." However, the film project he considered his own child has survived, thanks to the "unbreakable spirit" of him and his team. "Even though we faced many hardships and difficulties, we never lowered our standards in production."
"Unbreakable Spirit" will be released in Chinese theater on August 17.
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