San Diego Asian Film Festival 2008

It is the Winter of 1948 – Captain Guzidi leads an infantry unit consisting of just 46 men on a sniping mission. Their orders are to fight until the retreat assembly call is sounded. But that call never comes. After many hours of defense and with ammunition running out, men are falling hard and fast. Guzidi realizes that the call might have been missed during the heat of battle, contributing to the deaths of his men. The first half of the film is mesmerizing and brutal, containing some of the most realistic warfare scenes many critics have compared to Saving Private Ryan.

The second half of the film finds Guzidi as the only survivor on a mission to prove the heroism of his men and to honor their glorious deaths. Overall ASSEMBLY’s unflinching look at war can be too much for viewers to digest, but that is also what makes it so rewarding.

Co-presented by:
Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association
The House of China