Shocking Sands movie review

"Shocking Sands" has many achievements. Overall, this film is a cruel, even bloody, realist expression, restoring the tragic and tragic history to the screen. Many characters in "Shocking Sands" are very successfully created, especially the image of Qin Jiwei. His composure, his wisdom, and his tenacity in the face of life and death are all displayed on the screen; the character of Peng Dingshan is also well portrayed. It is very accurate. This character is in line with that era and the specific historical background. This is a very unique character in our army, which is difficult to see in military themes in the past; it also includes Lao Han and Guifang, both of whom were in specific situations. Promoted by reasonable and vivid character creation, this film has a lot of experience worth summarizing as a breakthrough in character creation. "Shocking Sands" is more about giving the audience the power to impress through the accumulation of characters' emotions. This power is internal and does not only exist in the external narrative. This kind of scene moves and shocks us very much. Even the small plot of why Lao Han beat the woman to death is preceded by foreshadowing and emotional accumulation. Throughout the narrative, it closely follows the psychology of the characters and echoes each other. (Commentary by Rao Shuguang, deputy director of the China Film Archive)

As a war epic, "Shocking Sands" truly restores the war scenes and allows the audience to see the real rain of bullets. In addition to using sufficient raw materials for visual special effects, the director also carefully designed the lens language to create a sense of reality in the most cinematic way. The film uses a lot of handheld photography, and the tracking camera shakes from time to time when the characters are running to show the bumps of the run. The expressiveness of the shots is comparable to the war scenes in "Assembly". The inner conflicts of the characters, the difficult choices of life and death, the chivalrous tenderness of the heroes, and the real complexity and diversity of the villains all make "Shocking Sands" break through the usual patterns of traditional war movies.

(Sina Financial Review)