OK, so here we have Beginning of the Great Revival. When I hear the word revival thus used, I think of religious shows in tents, but here it refers to the revival of China in the 20th Century. The significance of the "beginning" is, of course, that China owes its rapid and grand rise economically to the Communist Party, whose beginnings the story relates. The early parts of the film begin with the fracturing and collapse of the Qing Dynasty in China, then of course the brief time of Yuan Shikai, played by Chou Yun-fat as we know him in the West. Quickly we see the developing power of the corrupt Nationalist Party, and then a good part of the film is devoted to the young Mao Zedong. Mao appears to be a man who had the misfortune of being born with a receding hairline, with hair that naturally parts in the middle of his head. Joking aside, Mao is portrayed as an earnest and amiable young student who, after a very brief stint at Beijing University, returns to his home province of Hunan to help found the Chinese Communist Party. We meet his first wife, see their budding romance (no kissing), and see them go off to lead a life that was happy until Mao spotted his next love (not shown in film), and then the next, and the next...
If this all sounds like boring history stuff, that's because it's what most of this film is. There are no real surprises. We get a communist party view of historic events, complete with footage from Sergei Eisenstein's dramatization of the Bolshevik coup d'etat in Russia that was never quite the revolution depicted in Eisenstein's film. Much of the Beginning of the Great Revival seems to be an endless series of speeches--much loved by communist party leaders--some dramatic, some affected, mostly dull, interspersed with a few dramatic scenes of combat or mass demonstrations. To be honest, I forced myself to watch this film to the end, and once was more than enough.
If this all sounds like boring history stuff, that's because it's what most of this film is. There are no real surprises. We get a communist party view of historic events, complete with footage from Sergei Eisenstein's dramatization of the Bolshevik coup d'etat in Russia that was never quite the revolution depicted in Eisenstein's film. Much of the Beginning of the Great Revival seems to be an endless series of speeches--much loved by communist party leaders--some dramatic, some affected, mostly dull, interspersed with a few dramatic scenes of combat or mass demonstrations. To be honest, I forced myself to watch this film to the end, and once was more than enough.