Saving General Yang

Filmmaker Ronny Yu's rousing battle epic tells a cherished morality tale from Chinese history, one involving the seven sons of General Yang. Yu's approach is aptly grand-scale--big as folklore itself--but avoids the outlandish wire stunts that would have pushed the material into martial-arts fantasy. Set within the 10th-century Song Dynasty, the story finds the Emperor's realm being attacked by traditional enemies, the Khitan. During the battle, the Emperor's noble general, Yang Ye (Adam Cheng), is wounded by a poison arrow and deliberately left stranded deep in enemy territory in order to lure out his seven young sons on a rescue mission that will pit them directly against a vengeful Khitan commander. A holy man predicts that six sons will return home, but that prophecy ultimately takes on a different meaning, as the sacrifices made by the Yang clan grow more painful and extreme. The title—which obviously echoes Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan—is no mere commercial gimmick but instead exceptionally fitting for this war story that takes place nearly a millennium earlier. Highly recommended. (C. Cassady)