''Saving General Yang'' is a 2013

Hong Kong film The cinema of Hong Kong ( zh, t=香港電影) is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, British Hong Kong, Hong Kong had a gr ...

directed by

Ronny Yu Ronny is a given name, sometimes a short form (hypocorism) of Ryan. It may refer to: * Ronny (footballer, born 1986), Brazilian footballer Ronny Heberson Furtado de Araújo * Ronny (footballer, born 1991), Brazilian footballer Ronieri da Silva Pi ...

. The story is based on the legendary

Generals of the Yang Family ''The Generals of the Yang Family'' is a collection of Chinese folklore, plays and novels on a military family from the earlier years of imperial China's Song Dynasty (960–1279). The stories recount the unflinching loyalty and the remarkable b ...

. The film was selected as part of the 2013

Hong Kong International Film Festival The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF), is one of Asia’s oldest international film festivals. Founded in 1976, the festival features different movies, filmmakers from different countries in Hong Kong. HKIFF screens around 230 films ...

Plot

The film is set in the early Northern Song dynasty, AD 986, of northeastern China. Former

Northern Han The Northern Han () was a dynastic state of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was founded by Liu Min (), formerly known as Liu Chong (), and lasted from 951 to 979. Founding of the Northern Han The short-lived state of Later Ha ...

general and the patriarch of the Yang clan

Yang Ye Yang Ye (楊業) or Yang Jiye (楊繼業)According to he changed his name directly from Liu Jiye to Yang Ye in 979, changing both the surname and the given name. If this is to be believed, the name Yang Jiye is technically incorrect, but shows ...

pledges allegiance to the new Han Chinese-ruled Song regime after Northern Han's fall. Years later Yang's seventh son,

Yang Yansi Yang Qilang (; literally "Yang's 7th son") is a fictional character in the ''Generals of the Yang Family'' legends, the 7th eldest and youngest son of Song Dynasty general Yang Ye. In these largely fictionalized stories, he was shot to death with ...

, participated in a martial arts tournament with his father's rival Pan Renmei's son Pan Bao in his sixth brother

Yang Yanzhao Yang Yanzhao (楊延昭) ( 958 – 9 February 1014), named Yang Yanlang (楊延朗) before 1012, was a military general in ancient China's Northern Song Dynasty. For over 2 decades he defended Song's northern border against the Khitan-ruled Lia ...

's place to win

Later Zhou Zhou, known as the Later Zhou (; ) in historiography, was a short-lived Chinese imperial dynasty and the last of the Five Dynasties that controlled most of northern China during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Founded by Guo Wei (E ...

's former princess Chai Meirong's (who is Yang Yanzhao's childhood sweetheart) hand in marriage, which ended in the latter's death. The following morning Yang and Pan meet with the

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

about the issue; Yang executes 30 whiplashes to his young sons as punishment. Later, Song's border stations are burned, signaling an invasion from the Khitan-ruled Liao regime. The Khitan army hopes to take its revenge on the Yang Clan and their followers for a past defeat that killed a Khitan general ten years previously. It was noted that the leader of the invading Khitan army is Yelü Yuan, son of the deceased Khitan general. Due to politics and Pan Bao's death, Pan Renmei is awarded with 50,000 troops to repel the Khitan army. As punishment, Gen. Yang is given a lesser task—to lead the charge and be the scout. When the two armies meet, Pan Renmei's lack of experience and inept leadership causes chaos among the Song army, and the Khitan forces emerge with a decisive victory. All the while Gen. Yang is trapped behind enemy lines in an abandoned town in front of Wolf Mountain. The Khitan army surrounds the town, allowing no one to leave. Pan, however, refuses to send troops to rescue Yang as revenge. This leaves Yang Ye's wife,

She Saihua She Saihua (佘賽花) is a legendary heroine from ancient China's Northern Song Dynasty. The wife of Yang Ye and the mother of their 7 sons, she is a prominent figure in the stories on '' Generals of the Yang Family''. The elderly and widowed ...

, devastated as she sends her seven sons to rescue him. It is later revealed that this is exactly what Yelü Yuan wanted, and the sons fall into his deadly trap. Led by the eldest son, Yang Yanping, the seven brothers—including the two youngest, who unlike their brothers have never seen combat—set out with a small band of Yang Clan's elite soldiers to fight through an army of thousands to reach to the Wolf Mountain. When they finally arrive in the town, the Khitan army starts bombarding it with catapults and unleashes a fierce attack. The seven escape with their father, but are the only ones of the clan to survive; all the soldiers with them are killed. In the escape the father is wounded with a

poisoned arrow Arrow poisons are used to poison arrow heads or darts for the purposes of hunting and warfare. They have been used by indigenous peoples worldwide and are still in use in areas of South America, Africa and Asia. Notable examples are the poisons se ...

(actually wounded in the previous battle). and he ultimately kills himself. The sons decide to bring their father's body home for a proper burial and to allow their mother to see her beloved husband one last time. Before sending off the seven sons, She Saihua visits a fortune teller, who gives her a slip of paper saying: "Seven will set off, six will return". By the end of the film, Yang Yansi dies after Pan's archers fill him full of arrows under his orders after he escaped from Wolf Mountain, and Yelü Yuan personally hunts Yang Ye's surviving sons and kills five of them. However, Yang Yanzhao alone defeats and kills Yelü in combat, seemingly proving the prediction wrong. It turns out, though, that the message was correct; what it actually meant was that Yang Yanzhao, who was son #6, was the one who would return and have a greater destiny than his siblings. He returned with his father's body, the brothers' weapons and Yelü Yuan's severed head. Although four of Yang Ye's sons' bodies were recovered, two had never been found. After his father's and brothers' funerals, Yang Yanzhao marries Chai Meirong. His victory over Yelü Yuan redeemed his father's failure to stop the Khitan army, and the Khitan empress had to halt her assault on the Song empire due to the loss of her general. Because of the sons' courageous actions, Yang Yanzhao rises to his late father's position as general and the Yang Clan developed a legendary reputation in China.

Cast

Adam Cheng Adam Cheng Siu-chow (born 24 February 1947) is a Hong Kong TVB actor and Cantopop singer. Career Cheng started his career in the 1970s, where he gained a reputation for playing the lead roles in TVB ''Wuxia'' drama series based on the works of ...

- Gen. Yang *

Xu Fan Xu Fan (, born 16 August 1967) is a Chinese actress and Asian Film Awards winner. She married film director Feng Xiaogang Feng Xiaogang (; born 18 March 1958 in Beijing) is a Chinese film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and politician ...

- Gen. Yang's wife and mother of their children *

Ekin Cheng Ekin Cheng is a Hong Kong actor and singer. Early in his career, he used the name Dior as a first name (because that was what it sounded like when his younger sister tried to call him 二哥 in Cantonese). He has also been referred to as Noodl ...

as Yang Yanping - Yang's first son *

Yu Bo Yu Bo (; born July 22, 1976) is a Chinese actor. Biography Yu was born on July 22, 1976 in Shenyang, Liaoning. From 1996 to 1999 he worked at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing as a security guard. He entered the Beijing Film Academy i ...

as Yang Yanding - Yang's second son *

Vic Chou Vic Chou () is a Taiwanese actor and singer. He is a member of the Taiwanese boy band F4. Career F4 Chou rose to fame for his role as Hua Ze Lei in the highly popular Taiwan television series ''Meteor Garden''. At the conclusion of the series, ...

as Yang Yan'an - Yang's third son * Li Chen as Yang Yanhui - Yang's fourth son *

Raymond Lam Raymond Lam (; Jyutping: lam4 fung1; born 8 December 1979) is a Hong Kong actor and singer who is best known for roles in the television dramas ''A Step into the Past'', ''Twin of Brothers'', ''Moonlight Resonance'', ''Highs and Lows'' and ''Line W ...

Yang Yande Yang Yande () is a fictional character in the '' Generals of the Yang Family'' legends, the fifth eldest son of Song Dynasty general Yang Ye. In these largely fictionalized stories, he survived the battle against the Liao Dynasty army that killed ...

- Yang's fifth son *

Wu Chun Wu Chun ( zh, t=吳尊; born Goh Kiat Chun, Joseph Wu on 10 October 1979) is a Bruneian actor, singer, and model. He was a member of Fahrenheit, a Taiwanese Mandopop vocal quartet boy band, from its debut in 2005 to June 2011, singing bass. Wu ...

- Yang's sixth son * Fu Xinbo as

- Yang's seventh son *

Ady An An Yi-xuan (; born 吳玟靜 on 29 September 1980), also known as Ady An, is a Taiwanese actress and singer who was discovered when she was working in a coffee shop. Born on September 29, 1980, she also is known as Audrey An and Wu Wen Ching. A ...

as Chai Meirong - Later Zhou kingdom's former princess *

Shao Bing Shao Bing (邵兵) is a Chinese actor who has won a Huabiao Award China Huabiao Film Awards (), also simply known as Huabiao Awards, is an annual awards ceremony for Chinese cinema. Named after the decorative Chinese winged columns (''huab ...

as Yelü Yuan - Liao regime's general *

Bryan Leung Bryan Leung Kar-yan (Chinese: , born 20 January 1948) is a Hong Kong film and television actor and film director who has played roles in numerous acclaimed martial arts films. He is affectionately known as "Beardy" due to his trademark facial ...

as Pan Renmei *

Chen Zhihui Chen Zhihui is a Chinese actor best known for playing supporting roles in various films and television series since the 1980s. Some of his more notable roles in film include: Master Chin in '' Jet Li's Fearless'' (2006); Zhang Fei in '' Three Kin ...

Huyan Zan Huyan Zan (呼延贊) (died 1000) was a Chinese military general in the early years of the Northern Song dynasty. He participated in the Northern Song's conquest of the Later Shu in 964-965 and the Northern Han in 979. Later he helped defend Song ...

* Li Qian as

Yang Paifeng Yang Paifeng (楊排風) is a fictional character from the ''Generals of the Yang Family'' legends. She is a maid in the Tianbo House, home to the Yang family. She learned martial arts by imitating the moves practiced by Yang family members, ...

References

External links

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Saving General Yang
at

Hong Kong Cinemagic Hong Kong Cinemagic, sometimes referred to as HKCinemagic, is a bilingual ( French and English) website providing a repository for information about Chinese language films from Hong Kong, China and Taiwan, and the people who created them. The websi ...

{{Ronny Yu 2013 films Hong Kong action war films Hong Kong martial arts films 2010s action war films 2010s Cantonese-language films Works based on The Generals of the Yang Family Films set in 10th-century Song dynasty Films set in the Liao dynasty Films directed by Ronny Yu Hong Kong films about revenge 2013 martial arts films 2010s Hong Kong films