More than just playing soldiers

Assembly transformed a little-known actor into one of China's hottest movie stars. Actor Zhang Hanyu has already earned four best-actor awards for his role as soldier Gu Zidi. But the rise to fame has been a long march for the 40-year-old actor.

"An ordinary soldier makes the story extraordinary. He lingers deeply in my soul. And the role is one I had been waiting for years," Zhang says. "I find my inner Gu Zidi from the film. His firm honesty, dignity and honor was just what I was looking for."

Zhang majored in performance at the Central Academy of Drama but after graduation in 1988 could only find voiceover work on foreign films.