Air Strike (2018 film)

Air Strike (Chinese: 大轰炸) also known as The Bombing or Unbreakable Spirit is a Chinese action war-drama film directed by Xiao Feng about the Japanese bombings of the Chinese city Chongqing during World War II.[3] Mel Gibson joined as production designer. The film stars Liu Ye, Bruce Willis, Song Seung-heon and William Chan, with special appearances by Nicholas Tse, Fan Bingbing and many others. Principal photography began in May 2015 in Shanghai, China.

With the beginning of World War II at the Battle of Shanghai and Nanjing in 1937,[4] the story develops around the Chinese Air Force’s great resistance against the Japanese invasion and occupation of China; the overwhelming might of the Imperial Japanese war machine taking down Shanghai and the wartime capital of Nanjing, followed by heavy resistance and eventual fall of the interim wartime capital of Wuhan in 1938, and climaxing into the bloody six years-long all-airwar Battle of Chongqing, the wartime capital of China for the remainder of World War II, with the remnants of the Chinese Air Force, the refugees, and the people of Chongqing exemplifying the undying resilience against years of barbaric air strikes by the Imperial Japanese air power.[5]

The film was filmed as a memorial for the 70th anniversary of the Allied victory in WWII.[12][13] Originally scheduled to be released on 17 August 2018,[1] it was later rescheduled to be released on 26 October 2018 in order to have a same-day global release.[14]

In October 2018, it was announced that screening plans of the film had been cancelled in China. Earlier, it was leaked by TV anchor Cui Yongyuan that Fan Bingbing, one of the film’s guest actors, was involved in a tax evasion scandal when starring in this film.[15][16][17] However the home video release in the United States went on as scheduled.[18]

The all-English dubbed version has been released to US streaming services and on Blu-ray.[19]