Director: Chen Kaige
Chen Kaige's war drama The Volunteers: To the War opens in October 1950, as newly formed Chinese army units cross into North Korea at the start of a conflict that would define the following three years.
What is The Volunteers To The War about?
The story follows an infantry company swept into mobilization after border clashes turn violent along the Yalu River. Commanders scramble to organize transport and supplies while ordinary soldiers, many with no combat experience, prepare for a winter campaign far from home. The film moves between command meetings and the ground-level reality of marching columns, cold rations and uncertain communication lines. Rather than building toward a single decisive battle, it tracks the unit's first weeks in the field, showing how quickly plans change once fighting starts and how much depends on soldiers who have barely finished training.
Cast & crew
Tang Guoqiang anchors the ensemble as a senior commander, working alongside Wang Yanhui and Liu Jin in supporting command roles. Xin Baiqing and Zhang Songwen play officers tasked with holding the company together under pressure, while Huang Xiaoming and Zhang Ziyi round out a cast built for a large-scale production, with Zhu Yawen completing the principal lineup of soldiers and staff introduced across the opening act.
Context & significance
The Volunteers: To the War is the first installment in a planned trilogy chronicling the Chinese military's involvement in the Korean War, produced on a scale associated with China's biggest studio war epics. Director Chen Kaige, known for internationally recognized dramas, takes on ensemble battlefield staging here, splitting attention between named officers and the wider ranks. The film sits in the same genre lane as other large Chinese war productions released in the early 2020s, focused on unit-level experience rather than grand strategy.
Where & how to watch
The Volunteers: To the War streams on K-Time with a Persian dub, alongside the full library of Persian-focused film and series titles. The page itself is free to read without an account; watching the film requires only a free K-Time account with a simple login, presented in a Farsi-friendly interface.