The Eight Hundred

During the early days of the Second Sino-Japanese War, and on a greater scale World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army invaded Shanghai, which became known as The Battle of Shanghai. After holding back the Japanese for over 3 months, and suffering heavy losses, the Chinese army was forced to retreat due to the danger of being encircled. Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan of the 524th Regiment of the under-equipped 88th Division of the National Revolutionary Army, lead 452 young officers and soldiers to defend Sihang Warehouse against the 3rd Imperial Japanese Division consisting of around 20,000 troops on a heroic suicidal last stand against the Japanese under an order by Generalissimo of Nationalist China, Chiang Kai-shek. The decision was made to provide a morale boost to the Chinese people after the losses of Beijing and Shanghai, and help spur support from the Allies, who were in full view of the battle from the International Settlement in Shanghai just across the Suzhou Creek.[9]

• Huang Zhizhong as Lao Hulu, soldier.
• Zhang Junyi as Xiao Hubei, soldier.
• Oho Ou as Duan Wu, soldier.
• Du Chun as Lieutenant Colonel Xie Jinyuan.
• Zhang Cheng as Lei Xiong, company commander.
• Wang Qianyuan as Yang Guai, soldier.
• Jiang Wu as Lao Tie, soldier.
• Zhang Yi as Lao Suanpan, soldier.
• Zhang Youhao as Xiao Qiyue, soldier.
• Vision Wei as Zhu Shengzhong, soldier.
• Tang Yixin as Yang Huimin, a girl scout guide who delivered the Nationalist Chinese flag to the soldiers
• Li Jiuxiao as Dao Zi.
• Liang Jing as Wife of the Professor.
• Hou Yong as the Professor.
• Li Chen as soldier.
• Xu Jiawen (Augusta Xu-Holland) as Eva.
• Yu Kailei as Luo Yang Chan, soldier.
• Xin Baiqing as Fang Xingwen.
• Cao Weiyu as Yu Hongjun.
• Ma Jingwu
• Yu Haoming as Shangguan Zhibiao, company commander.
• Liu Xiaoqing as Sister Rong.
• Yao Chen as He Xiangning.
• Zheng Kai as Chen Shusheng, deputy squad leader.
• Huang Xiaoming

Guan Hu had been preparing for the film for 10 years.[10] The Eight Hundred is the first Chinese and Asian film shot entirely on IMAX cameras.[11][12] The production team had built a real scene of 68 buildings with an area of 133,333-square-metre (1,435,180 sq ft) in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu province.[13] The investment amount of the film is as high as 550 million yuan ($80 million USD).[10]

Principal photography started on 9 September 2017 and wrapped on 27 April 2018.[13][14]

A theme song for the film titled "Remembering" (苏州河) was written by Bob Ezrin, Shridhar Solanki, Cheng Zhang and Isabel Yue Yin based on the melody of the Londonderry Air and was performed by Andrea Bocelli and Na Ying. The theme song had both an English and Mandarin version. The theme song was accompanied by the film's main theme and score written by Rupert Gregson-Williams and Andrew Kawczynski.

The film was originally scheduled to premiere on 15 June 2019 during the prestigious opening slot of the Shanghai International Film Festival but was pushed back to 5 July, due to "consultation between the production team and other entities".[15][16] Before film withdrawal, the Chinese Red Culture Research Association held an academic conference on filmmaking where attendees voiced opinions on The Eight Hundred.[12] Attendees did not agree with the portrayal of the National Revolutionary Army, saying the film failed to portray "the class oppression within the ranks of the Kuomintang army, the misdeeds of its officers and its evil oppression of the people".[12] Afterwards, the film's screening at the Shanghai film festival was cancelled. Jia Zhangke, a prominent filmmaker, criticised the decision, saying on Sina Weibo "[things] cannot be done like that for the moviemaking business".[17]

The film was then delayed yet again from its 5 July 2019 release date.[18] Pushed back by over a year for failing to pass the censors, on 2 August 2020, the producers announced that the film was scheduled for release on 21 August 2020 nationwide in China.[12][19] The theatrical version is said to be 13 minutes shorter than the one that would have screened in 2019 at the Shanghai film festival.[20]

• The Eight Hundred at IMDb
• The Eight Hundred at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Eight Hundred at Douban (in Chinese)