Wang Danrong
Award-Winning Filmmaker
Best Sound
Sound, The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death
Jury Citation
The sound of The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death stood out among the nominated works. Its finely sculpted soundscape builds a real, tangible battlefield space and sets a new benchmark for the industry. Through sound design of the sound field, elements and movement in each scene, it shapes clearly layered emotion and narrative pacing, blending voices, the clash of weapons, the roar of explosions and ambient sound with precision. Amid its grand narrative it keeps attention to detail and emotion, opening a new dimension in sound storytelling for war films.
The Volunteers: The Battle of Life and Death: Synopsis
The film focuses on the Battle of Cheorwon. In May 1951, the 63rd Army of the Chinese People's Volunteers, having just finished a month of continuous fighting, was ordered to the Cheorwon battlefield to face four divisions of the "United Nations Command" head-on. The Volunteers fought a bloody battle and finally forced the enemy to the negotiating table. To complete their mission, the soldiers of the 189th Division of the 63rd Army broke into small units, each turning himself into a nail fixed firmly in position. On the battalion's position, battalion political instructor Li Xiang (Zhu Yilong) vows "not one more step back" and holds the line to the death. Amid the gunfire, Li Moyin (Xin Baiqing) and his family of three are reunited on the battlefield. A key and a reunion meal in the trenches bring this family, separated by war, even closer. To build better weapons for the new China, returned military engineering expert Wu Benzheng (Zhu Yawen) enters the battlefield under the protection of Zhang Xiaoheng (Ou Hao). As his bodyguard, Zhang Xiaoheng firmly believes that protecting Wu Benzheng means protecting the country's future. Sun Xing (Chen Feiyu) and Yang Sandi (Zhang Youhao) also arrive at Cheorwon. Together, all the officers and soldiers of the 63rd Army build an unbreakable "Iron Great Wall" on the Cheorwon battlefield!