Great cinematography and a very interesting and heart breaking real life movie based on the Chinese soldiers who were deemed MIA but actually died fighting for their country. Didn't know much about this and so glad I watched it and would recommend this to anyone.

the battle scenes are excellent while the story is about the officer and his search for his men he left behid and to find the truth of why they all died and why he did not it does gives us an insight to the communist view of the battle and how one individual in a communist state needed to know the truth and wanted his men honoured like in every other country that went to war communist or democratic it is in my view a sad indictment of war we sometimes forget the heroes

easily one of the best was films i've seen this year! the battle scenes are brutal and brilliant at the same time!

The battle scenes in Assembly are undeniably potent, intense and obviously indebted to Saving Private Ryan. The opening ambush is the stongest battle sequence introducing us to the brutal civil war which engulfed China after they had expelled the hated Japanese occupation. However these compelling scenes are often undermined by the intrusive and overbearing score where the power of the images would have made them even more poignant and dreadful.
Gu Zidi's quest to prove the existance of his fallen comrades renders the film uneven after the startling carnage of the first hour; perhaps the narrative would have been better served by the battle scenes being interspersed as flashbacks during his search for justice.
Yet it is this search that really proves to be the Assembly's most intriguing section; just how much would the party put up with the meddling of an old soldier even if he was a war hero or are we seeing a Communist regime still unsure of itself after fighting two bitter wars of survival?
What is interesting is the ambiguous message of Assembly; are we witnessing the triumph of the individual wrapped up in Communist propaganda or Communist propaganda masquerading as a celebration of the human spirit?

I had the privellege of seeing this on the big screen. It has a little bit of everything. It is based on a true story, so as well as getting some of the best war scenes I have every seen you also get the feeling of a sense of closure for the lead character!

5 STARS - A must have addition to any war collection!!