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SoldierStory: Frontier Defense Troops Of PLA In 1962 India-China War

7K views 41 replies 34 participants last post by  nomelrw 
#1 ·
Soldierstory-frontier Defense Troops Of P.l.a. In 1962 India-china War



























































 
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#6 ·
Some very nice detail on this guy. Quite impressive. Isn't he the second PLA soldier from this era the Soldier Story has done? I seem to remember a previous guy with a K50 SMG who was a national hero or something like that.
 
#14 ·
Hoo-Boy, they've got me bracketed, I am sooo screwed. No TS vs SS for me, I want 'em both, esp as they are diff unis and conflicts. Now if one or both would turn out helmets. Interesting that the guy from the movie is carrying a Johnson rifle.
 
#18 ·
Another great looking figure from Soldier Story! :thumb

I hope this figure has good sales - maybe that way there will be more "Cold War" era subjects from Soldier Story and the other manufacturers in the future...

One (slightly OT) question: I thought Chinese-made AK ammo used black painted steel cartridge casings rather than the more usual brass?
 
#25 · (Edited)
Regarding the film featured in the poster, ASSEMBLY:

Let me first say that I am ethnically Chinese having spent most of my life Stateside and relocated as an adult in the 90's to Asia-Pac.

Now I've seen lots of improvements in Asian cinema in the past decade or so and Asia has produced some talent particularly direction-wise in films.

The director of this film is a well known name in these parts, but I have to say that I am not a fan of the style this film was made.

Cinematography-wise -- it has a similar grainy light coloration like Saving Private Ryan. Korea's Tae Guk Ki from a coupla years ago which told the story of Koreans fighting in the Korean War did the same sort of copying. While here you have a film that has been made that looks like a serious war film on the surface, but it is completely lacking of structural integrity as far as being concerned with being technically correct for modern infantry war fighting.

While the director Phuong Siao Gan may have succeeded in copying the vintage look & feel of SPR, the success stops at the surface. Phuong takes rather large doses of artistic licensing in the story telling, as far as the development of combat scenes and tactical layout of each scene. It's obvious though that he's no Oliver Stone, has never spent a single day in combat, nor has he been exposed to hostile fire of any measure, nor has he bothered to research the subject of leg soldiering. No. He's just out to make a glorious feel-good kung fu film level of fantasy movie except for the presence of army uniforms and the lack of hanging high wires.

I came in to the theater expecting an emotionally moving story that depicts un-discounted action of war fighting that would give the viewer the thrill of being in combat save for the smoke and smell of cordite. What I got instead was pure Chinese machoism and the ever present over-acting skills of Chinese actors, a notorious trait found in your typical Asian film.

Unfortunately, this film fell far short of my expectations. They managed to lose my interest within the first 10 minutes of the film, when the Chicom force decided to send a probing team of 4 men, each proceeding in broad day light straight down an avenue lined by bombed out houses on both sides. The men, moving silently in tightly choreographed steps with the point man aiming ahead, followed by the left and right aimers, trailed by the aft guard aiming backwards of course, crept along on a string in search of the enemy Nationalists. Each of them communicating with clinched fists, open palms, and spread the index and middle fingers pointing at eyes for signaling eyes-on, exactly like the hand signals seen in SWAT movies shot by Americans who would have gone on to invented SWAT in America decades after the time period set in this film which presumably was 1946-49. Wow ! Those Chicoms sure are cool and full of machismo. All they need are Blackhawk vests, Mp-5's, and throat mikes to look authentic.

But of course, if reality had anything to do with this film, they wouldn't have been able to shoot scenes of such cool-looking sharply trained elite troop that of course made up the entire 8th Route Army -- so we are led to believe.

Too bad there wasn't an ounce of likely realism .. firstly, if a squad were to be sent into a hostile urban environment, where the location of enemies were un-known, the optimum way to proceed would be by skipping, hopping, then hiding -- not straight down the path but following the perimeter of the two sides. When you line up 4 men like ducks in a column, a sniper from a high position can take them out within seconds, because there would be no place to hide. And yet .. that's exactly what happened next in the film, save for the shooter had a Thompson (all the better to take out a bunch of dumbass Communists SWAT wanna-bes). Ooops! Except due to the fact that the director had skillfully constructed this heroic epic, amazingly the squad survives full-auto fire from above, then with a swift move one of the recon men drops to one knee and skillfully takes out the Nationalist Tommy gunner with one shot from his Chinese K98. Simply jaw dropping ! At how monotonous this single minded brain dead culture in communist China continues to crank out heroic epics of the PLA's prowess in combat ... that never existed except in the dead brain tissue of communist minds.

I mean we are talking about a ragged peasent-based militia that evolved into an legitimate army due to George Marshall's interference basing on his mistaken belief that the Chicoms were basically very liberal Democrats to Chiang Kai Shek's Nationalists/Republicans and the two mortal enemies ought to share power as American Democrats & Republicans. This same army then fought to a draw against the United Nations, after wasting tens upon hundreds of thousands of casualty including Mao's eldest son in Korea only with the backing of 10 Soviet armor divisions which still didn't bother MacArthur much in that old Mac was going to overrun those Chicoms and invade the Chinese homeland had Harry Truman not recalled him. We are talking about the same army that sucker-punched India ala Hitler on Poland via firstly a peace accord, as we are now seeing a celebration of sorts in the form of this figure release over their glorious border skirmish which is part of the Chinese neighborhood aggression moves along with its annexation of lowly Tibet. Lastly, we are talking about the same army that went to teach Vietnam a lesson over Cambodia with a vastly superior force in terms of men and technology then promptly had it's butt royally kicked by the battle-harden VC.

P-Please! Give us a break.

It's pinko commie propaganda. Pure and simple. And fortunately, I did not buy the manure therein after the first 10 minutes.

I could guess at the rest of it .. was just more incredible heroics against all odds that of course, like history, had the Chicoms prevailing. If only the naked reality of the Chinese Civil War, as in how it was in fact more lost by the Nationalists then it was won by the Chicoms, was as dramatically handsome as Chinese film makers would make their own heroes out to be. It may be entertainment for the local simpleton populous, but for those who appreciate the subtlety of proper story telling and the concept of revering historic accuracy, you might be inclined to agree .. to not being able to watch all of the B.S. on film.

If it comes out on DVD at Blockbuster's under the foreign section, it might be worth one of your free rental coupons just to satisfy your curiosity. But don't expect the likes of Our Fathers' Flag and SPR just yet out of Asia.

2 cents.
 
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