Alone： A creative, innovative and sincere film.

"Alone Army" is a work supported by major literary and artistic projects in Sichuan Province. It is based on a real history. In February 1935, in order to cooperate with the strategic shift of the main force of the Central Red Army, the newly established guerrilla column in southern Sichuan undertook the task of harassing and containing some of the main forces of the enemy. With the support of the people of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, the guerrilla column in southern Sichuan fought to the death with the Kuomintang army whose military strength was dozens of times that of its own, fighting alone, and most of the Red Army soldiers died heroically. The film is a creative, innovative and sincere film with distinctive theme, lofty conception, rigorous structure and touching story.

Some battles on the way to the Long March, such as the bloody Xiangjiang River, crossing the Jinsha River skillfully, crossing the Dadu River forcibly, flying over the Luding Bridge, crossing the snowy mountains, and capturing Lazikou, as well as some major historical events, such as the Zunyi Conference, have been reflected and presented in movies in the past. The film "Alone Army" tells the story of the guerrilla column of the Red Army in southern Sichuan, which is an affectionate creation and theme expansion of the Long March film, and even fills a gap in the Long March film. The creative team led by the relevant leaders of Xingwen County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province and Liu Zhihuan, the chief producer of the film, dug deep into history, studied history, put a historical fact that was almost forgotten on the screen and presented it artistically and aesthetically, thus continuing the red culture in the film language.

Yang hu, the director of Alone, is good at shooting military and war movies. After watching this movie, we can see his unremitting efforts and active exploration. In order to restore the real historical scenes, especially the war scenes, "Alone Army" filmed the blocking war, siege war, sports war, etc., which is vivid, dynamic and layered, and can meet the requirements of the current audience, especially the young audience, for the audiovisual quality of cinema films. For such military and war movies, the film’s creative team is adept at grasping the whole history, highlighting the truth of the details, attracting the audience into the cinema, and effectively accepting and spreading the spirit, thoughts, emotions, especially lofty beliefs contained in the red movies.

The plot of "Alone Army" is tortuous, and the rhythm is fast. However, in limited space and time, the main creator also strives to create personalized and full images of Red Army commanders and soldiers, which forms great tension in the setting of character relations and produces strong dramatic conflicts, making the connotation of the film richer and deeper. "Being alone is not alone", because the spirit of being alone is immortal. "Alone" expresses the soldiers’ precious faith and lofty realm through their arduous battles and life course of dying, and naturally expresses this expression in the development of plot and scene, which brings shock to the audience and realizes maximum empathy, resonance and resonance. (Author: Rao Shuguang, President of China Film Critics Association)

People’s Daily Overseas Edition (07th Edition, January 19, 2024)