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E-mail China Daily, November 3, 2020
Guo, a state-of-the-art technology enthusiast, entered the directorial A-list in China with the sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth. He says his team adopted virtual photography and motion-capture techniques to visualize the battle scenes on computer, making the actual on-set shoot in Dandong easier.
Aside from racing against time, the crew had to cope with their own persistent enemy bombardment－the changeable weather－while filming in Dandong, the border city along the Yalu River facing the Korean Peninsula, which was chosen as the filming set for its landscape's resemblance to that of Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
In September, a typhoon had ravaged the city, bringing in floods. The crew's vehicles, loaded with props and costumes and parked on a flattened cornfield covering 200,000 square meters, were affected by the water. Most portable toilets were submerged by an overflowing river that was used to represent the Kumgang River. With a width of 60 meters and depth of 4 meters, it's a tremendous torrent where swimming is difficult.
During the hardest days of flooding, which lasted for 10 days, the crew had to suspend shooting, arranging for actors to rehearse their scenes in hotels, with chairs or tables used as "weapons" to help their imagination, recalls Liang.
With the final post-production procedure concluding just two days before its release on Oct 23, the film mobilized the industry's top talent and resources, making it the latest example of Chinese cinema's fast recovery from the COVID-19 hiatus.
Among mixed reviews online, most criticism was directed at the film's three-perspective narrative. With a comparison to Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk, which is told from the perspectives of troops on land, in air and sea, most Chinese netizens say The Sacrifice "repeats scenes in a cumbersome way".
But actor Zhang Yi, who portrays an anti-aircraft gunner, has become the top highlight for his performance, vividly displaying the character's transformation from a somewhat cowardly, hesitant figure to a fearless hero.
Most insiders and industry watchers believe the Chinese film－despite some shortcomings－shows that the industrialization of Chinese films is being accelerated, helping the domestic industry to mature.
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