AFTERSHOCK

July 27th, 1976. The place is Tangshan City, China. It's a sweltering summer and a swarm of dragonflies invades the streets, much to the amusement of young twins Fang Deng (Jingchu Zhang) and Fang Da (Chen Li). Their father Da Qiang (Guoqiang Zhang) is less impressed.

As he drops his kids off in the town centre so he can go about his daily business, they get into trouble with local bullies (Fang Deng is forever saving her brother Fang Da from the mean kids). Quickly hotfooting it home, they savour the rest of the afternoon there - drawing on Dad's arm, enjoying sitting in front of the fan and hanging on their beloved mother Yuan Ni's (Fan Xu) every word.

They are safe. They are at home, with their family.

But, as anyone who studied Chinese history will have already deduced by the date in the first line of this review, all that is about to change.

That evening, while their kids settle in their beds and try to get to sleep, Da Qiang and Yuan Ni sneak out to his work truck for a spot of nookie. As they giggle and roll around in the back of the vehicle, a bright light suddenly fills the sky and the ground starts to shake. As buildings rumble and the ground beneath them begins to crack, the panicked couple race into the street realising they're in the middle of an almighty earthquake.

Watching the apartment block they live in crumble to the ground, Yuan Ni screams for her children - but Da Qiang holds her back. Witnessing the kids crying from their bedroom window, he eventually runs towards the building in a bid to save them ... and is engulfed in the ensuing cloud of dust.

Following the quake - 23 seconds in reality, but padded out to 3 minutes here - Yuan Ni is just one of the many left shell-shocked and bloodied in the street, observing with us as friends, neighbours and strangers pitch together to save the injured and collect the dead. Beneath the rubble, Fang Da and Fang Deng are sobbing to be freed.

Yuan Ni hears Fang Da's pleas and enlists the aid of several passers-by to dig her children out. But there's a problem: the concrete slab that traps the kids is positioned in such a way that whichever way it moves, it will kill one of them. Yuan Ni is faced with an impossible dilemma (is it worth mentioning SOPHIE'S CHOICE?!): which one of her children does she want to save the most?

After finally making an agonising decision - quite a traumatic resolution to a lengthy scene - Yuan Ni and her chosen offspring make the lengthy journey, with many other broken survivors, to an aide centre that has been set up several miles away.

In the interest of fair play, I'll refrain from divulging what happens next. The remainder of the film - a 130-minute affair that truly deserves the term "epic" - chronicles the plights of two families, including Yuan Ni and youngster as they negotiate the assistance of her overbearing mother, through three decades of Chinese life.

Family machinations are examined closely (both conventional and adoptive), the rise of Chinese economy and the subsequent recovery of Tangshan are observed, and the tribulations of growing-up are given their due as the film makes its way towards its full-circle 2006 conclusion.

AFTERSHOCK comes from director Xiaogang Feng. His most successful film prior to this was 2007's ASSEMBLY. In that, he delivered a shattering addition to the war-action genre. Here, he addresses disaster movies ...

Based on a popular Chinese novel that itself is inspired by the earthquake that took 240,000 lives in 1976 (the biggest earthquake fatality of the 20th Century), AFTERSHOCK treats the subject matter with austerity and respect. The FX are stunning during the early quake scenes, but this is no bloated 2012-type blockbuster. Despite the gut-wrenching devastation that we witness in the wake of the quake, the funeral processions and fresh graveyards that we are privy to afterwards, the real disaster here is the loss of a family.

Technically, AFTERSHOCK is another triumph for Feng. It's well-shot, well-acted, the set-pieces are stunning. Each shot is expertly considered so as to be stunning, while being careful enough to never distract from the fact that the actors are doing a superb job of tugging at your heart strings.

But, with predictable scenes of loss and redemption set up from the start and an overly cloying score, AFTERSHOCK feels a bit too manipulative for its own good: it's a tear-jerker and it wants you to feel it moving through you.

That's no bad thing, of course, we all like something powerful. But sometimes it's hard to respond to something when it makes it so brazenly clear that it's desperate for a reaction from you.

Despite that, AFTERSHOCK comes recommended. If you can take its sentimentality and its abuse of sad film conventions, you'll be able to enjoy the stunning production designs, consummate performances and a story arc that - while a tad convenient - will kick you in the knackers. There's even frequent action too, albeit more of the plot-progressing type than the "aargh, ya motherfuckers" variety.

AFTERSHOCK is presented in a pin-sharp, highly impressive 16x9 widescreen presentation (2.35:1) that accurately reflects its restrained colour schemes and glacial feel during the quake scenes, and conveys beautiful natural warmth elsewhere. Images are clean, blacks are robust and grain is non-existent.

The Mandarin audio is provided in 2.0 and 5.1 mixes. Both are sterling efforts, with the film's startling opening scenes benefiting in particular from the latter. I was unable to remove the well-written English subtitles provided.

Astonishingly, for such a large production from such a name director (Hollywood surely awaits Feng), there are no extras on this disc. Foreign releases include the likes of a trailer, Making Of documentary, deleted scenes and interviews with the cast and crew.

An animated main menu page leads in to a static scene-selection menu allowing access to AFTERSHOCK via 12 chapters.

The DVD is defaulted to open with trailers for LEBANON, ATTACK ON LENINGRAD and THE ASSASSIN'S BLADE.

The film is also available on an English-friendly blu-ray release, from Hong Kong.

If you like films that end with text telling you more facts about what you've been watching (true story stuff, basically), then AFTERSHOCK should appeal to your sensibilities. There is a hint of desperation about it, in its need to make you weep, but it's proficiently staged nevertheless - and on a grand scale. There's no sex or gore (or mutants), but it's well worth a watch if you're in the mood for involving drama that's been mustered with style and intelligence.

If it's a film you'd buy though, I'd consider looking at imports as this release - though it looks and sounds great - is shy of extras. And this is one of those films where the extra features are likely to be equally rewarding.

Review by Stuart Willis