Ethnic Hui Detachment

1959 War 102 minutes Directed by Li Jun

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About Ethnic Hui Detachment

In 1938, on the central Hebei plain, former Northeast Army officer Ma Benzhai raises a Hui Muslim volunteer unit against the Japanese. A battle with a better-armed Japanese force nearly wipes it out until the Eighth Route Army pulls the survivors clear, and Ma brings the men in as the Hui Detachment. Deputy Bai Shouren, in league with the turncoat Ha Shaofu, tries to march the troops into a surrender, and Ma shoots him. Japanese officer Yamamoto then seizes Ma's mother, Bai Wenguan, who starves herself to death rather than call her son in. Ma joins the Communist Party; political commissar Guo is killed in the fighting.

Cast & crew

More about Ethnic Hui Detachment

Feng Yifu and Li Jun directed this black-and-white Mandarin feature for August First Film Studio, which also released it. Li Jun, Ma Rong, and Feng Yifu wrote the script. Yang Sen edited, Xu Run designed the sets, and Guo Dazhen recorded the sound.

Themes

  • A local Hui force
  • Refusing to defect
  • A mother who will not bargain
  • Joining the Eighth Route Army
  • Ma Benzhai
  • Hui detachment
  • Eighth Route Army
  • Bai Shouren
  • Bai Wenguan
  • central Hebei
  • 1938

Background

August First, the People's Liberation Army studio, released the film in 1959, the tenth anniversary of the People's Republic, when a slate of new features was shown for National Day.

In film history

It puts Ma Benzhai's Hui detachment on screen as a unit that starts as a local volunteer force and ends inside the Eighth Route Army.

Making

Li Hongquan is credited with the costume design. The story follows the real Hui detachment led by Ma Benzhai in the war against Japan.

Look

Cao Jinyun shot the black-and-white feature.

Music

Staff lists credit Cao Jinyun with the music.

Preservation

A full-length copy, about 102 minutes, circulates from a 1905.com transfer now on Wikimedia Commons.

Notes

  • Li Po plays Ma Benzhai. Hu Peng plays his mother, Bai Wenguan. Jia Liu plays political commissar Guo.
  • Liu Jiang plays the Japanese officer Yamamoto. Liu Jiyun and Wang Runshen are also billed.
  • Ma Benzhai was a real commander of a Hui detachment in the war against Japan. He died in 1944.
  • It was named among the outstanding titles in the 1959 National Day exhibition of new domestic features.
  • A Wikimedia Commons transfer of a circulating copy runs 1 hour 42 minutes.

Scenes

  • The volunteer unit is cut up by a Japanese force and pulled out by the Eighth Route Army.
  • Ma shoots Bai Shouren after the deputy tries to hand the troops over.
  • Bai Wenguan starves herself to death rather than call her son in.