Beginning of the Great Revival (2011)

Know at the start I've over rated this film a point or two simply because the film is nowhere near as bad as the rating of 2.3 readers have given this film.This film is a telling of the founding of the communist party from the point of the 1911 revolution on to the the actual founding. Its a star studded flag waiving puff piece put together by official Chinese authorities.A great film to look at the film could have and should have been a masterpiece of more than the technical arts.The problem is that the films march to compress several decades of complex history into a couple of hours makes the film a highlight reel where we get clips of events which have the significance explained by titles on the screen. The result is not the living history they were aiming for, but rather it's a dull museum piece... or a lesser History Channel special. I kept waiting for Edward Hermann's narration to kick in and explain the away the slow spots.On some level I kind of liked the film, but more because it gave me some basic understanding of the events that transpired. I completely understand that the film is tinged with pro-Communist propaganda but at the same time much of it is clearly visible...and beside things move so fast you'd have to be crazy to completely accept that this is everything that happened.Worth a look see for those with an interest in Historucal epics... then again I'd go for the much better Founding of a Republic if given the choice.

basically it's just a pile-up of stars. no plot, no detailed relationships, no magnificent war scenes. With fake historical background of course.and because of this s-h-i-t-t-y-a-s-s quality film, CCP postponed the air date of Transformer3 in PRC. it earns money by forcing party members and students to watch this goddamn movie.Trust me, no one's gonna watch this propaganda show.If you have any of the alternatives, DON'T WATCH IT!Geez I don't even know how come this movie is presented in the States.

Just like the movie that came in about few years ago, propagating the government, and how they had established the "new China", this is a documentary film, trying to deliver the history at that time. I see that many of the reviews said that there were not a storyline throughout the film, and can't see the connections between them. However, as a historical documentary, I consider the film without a storyline, but rather, a timeline. The timeline went from 1909 (I think) to before WW2. I in fact do not consider this movie boring, and believe that it has its positive sides. Unlike some other government productions, this movie is rather subjective, with not too much intentions to propagate the govenment. Again, it was meant to go over the whole history of the communist govenment in this period of time. But some recommendations about the film, if you aren't Chinese, don't watch the movie, if you hate the govenment, I mean, by hate, don't watch it, if you do not know anything and don't want to know about the historical figures of China, don't watch the movie. I didn't find the film extremely interesting, but it briefly helped me go over the history of China.

As quoted by a professor in China, "It is an era of irony. You are encouraged to sing songs of revolution, but you are discouraged to make revolution. You are encouraged to see a film of founding a party (Beginning of the Great Revival), but you are discouraged to really found a new party." Another quote from China netizen, "It is a film about a group of people fighting dictatorship, and finally became the ones they originally fought against." Facts are somewhat filtered and neglected from the film. If talking about May 4th movement, why the two main thoughts are omitted. The thoughts of democracy and science are main theme too. Why is this neglected? Why does the film selectively depict the May 4th movement with students just like Red Guard in Cultural Revolution - breaking into people home to catch and burning house. There are actually protest and strikes, and the protest started right from Tiananmen square. Why the most important scene is omitted? Why were open debate allowed in Beijing University's library at that time? What would happen if protest and open debate today? One of the two China communist party founding leaders is Chen Du-xiu. Ironically, he left the party later and refused any help from the communist party. He turned to liberalism instead.