BEGINNING OF THE GREAT REVIVAL (China 2010) **
Directed by Sanping Han and Jianxin Huang

THE GREAT REVIVAL here refers to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of China.  The film chronicles the events in the early 20th Century leading to the eventual founding after many executions and internal battles.

Directors Sanping Han and Jianxin Huang take great pains to construct an authentic looking period piece.  They succeed in this aspect.  The costumes, sets, wardrobe and art direction are outstanding.  The film starts off with the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the rise in power of Mao Zedong and the formation of the Communist Party.  The student riots (the May 4th Movement) form the film’s climax.  The film is nothing more than a large number of events strung together like a history lesson.  Though the set pieces are occasionally dramatic, the connection between the parts is loosely put together.  At over 2 hours, the film eventually drags on like a boring history lesson.

The film boasts an enormous list of famous Chinese stars performing key roles.  This would result in the ‘oh wow’ factor when someone famous is seen on screen.  Unfortunately for western audiences, most names are unfamiliar except for a few like Chow Yun-Fatt, Andy Lau and John Woo.

The irony of it all is that the Chinese would be best appreciative of this movie – for its lavish productions and countless famous star cameos.  But it is will also be the Chinese that would recognize the film as total communist propaganda propagated by the Chinese government who are as much guilty of the identical crimes of the government and monarchy they ousted.  It is reported that the Chinese were ‘forced’ to watch this film to up the box-office numbers of perhaps to be indoctrinated of the good of the communist party.

Whatever reason, this obvious one-sided film is not fooling anybody.