The Red Army crossing the Jiajinshan Mountain during the Long March. (Photo : Getty Images)
This year's release of the war movie "The Warriors," which premiered as the opening film at the 13th Changchun Film Festival, coincides with the 80th anniversary of the Red Army's Long March victory.
Directed by Ning Haiqiang, the film is based on the Battle of Luding Bridge in 1935. This battle highlighted one of the Red Army's victories during the Long March.
The Long March began on Oct. 16, 1934 and ended on Oct. 20 of the following year. It happened during the civil war, which broke out in 1927, between the Nationalists and the Communists.
From 1930 to 1934, the Nationalists led by Chiang Kai-shek schemed a series of five encirclement operations against the Communists who were under the leadership of Mao Zedong. With their guerilla tactics, the Communists were able to resist the first four operations.
However, in the fifth, with Chiang's increased 700,000 troops and constructed fortifications around the Communist positions, hundreds of thousands of peasants were killed or died of starvation in the siege, and the number of the Red Army was reduced.
Realizing their looming defeat, the Communists looked for the weakest points of the encirclement and decided to break out of it.
Thus began the Long March which stretched out some 4,000 to 6,000 miles across many rivers and mountain ranges.
The eventual defeat of the Nationalists led to the rise of Mao as the irrefutable leader of the Chinese Communists and his proclamation of the People's Republic of China.
Director Ning said on a press conference in Beijing on Wednesday that they particularly chose the release date to remember the heroism of the revolutionary martyrs and with a hope that people would appreciate the peace they have today because of these martyrs.
