With the resounding success of the star-studded Founding of the Republic in 2009 which celebrated the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China, the China Film Group saw that the road ahead was paved with yuan. So it comes to pass that Beginning of the Great Revival (aka The Beginning of the Great Party) has been unleashed to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the commencement of China’s Communist Party. Equally star-studded with everyone from Chow Yun-fat to Daniel Wu in major roles, the film duplicates the historical formula of squeezing in as much detail as possible and running a relay race from important event to important event. For those whose Chinese history is not up to scratch, this will be a marathon, but with enjoyable highs as well as baffling lows.
Essentially the story is the background to why (to end feudalism, prevent civil war, follow the example set by Russia’s 1917 revolution and the betrayal of China by the US to placate Japanese colonialism in order to help contain Russia) and how (with monarchists and their assassins tailing their every move) a bunch of activists including a charismatic Mao Zedong (Liu Ye) and forward thinkers managed to create the Chinese Communist party.
Always patriotic – the film mentions the 400 million strong Chinese population of the era at least a half dozen times – it could be dismissed as propaganda, but it’s just so goddamned rousing.
In some ways, the film recalls the widescreen historical epics (Quo Vadis, Lawrence of Arabia, Nicholas and Alexander) that Hollywood was once in love with. There is a lot of 'Mr. Mao I’d like you to meet Mr. Hu" type dialogue and it races just as fast as Oliver Stone’s JFK with just as many personalities though with a much happier, celebratory ending. Fortunately, directors Han Sanping and Huang Jianxin (as well as three other guest directors) have had the foresight to introduce everyone with a caption and so those with a rudimentary knowledge of Chinese are in with a chance.
Adding to the film’s inherent sense of celebration is that the rapid editing offers a true adrenalin rush. The film swings from Shanghai to Beijing to Mao’s Hunan province all the way to Moscow, Paris and Tokyo, with a sense of purpose that is as exhilarating as it is at times incomprehensible to the uninitiated. This sense of occasion is further augmented by lavish production design, clever use of some Shanghai alleyways around the area where the first Communist meeting took place, great CGI and a superb cast.
The blink and you’ll miss them ensemble, like in the aforementioned Hollywood epics, is both a flaw and a virtue. It is reminiscent of a party of a different kind. It’s like going to some crowded function where a bunch of friends are gathered. 'Did you see Simon Yam?" 'Yeah, he gave a quick, inspiring speech at the beginning and he was gone." 'Did you see Daniel Wu?" 'Yes, he was Chinese philosopher Hu Shi." 'What about John Woo?" 'He was acting?" 'Yeah, he was Lin Sen, one of the guys who fled to Japan." 'What about Miriam Yeung?" 'No, missed her too." 'Who did you see?" 'Andy Lau; Fan Bingbing; Tang Wei; Dong Jie; Oh, I can’t remember everyone!"
Of the performers who get to really register beyond mere fast flashes, Liu Ye has the required gravitas as Mao. Aloys Chen has a James Dean sense of good looks as Zhou Enlai and Chow Yun-fat is perfect as the post-monarchist Commander in Chief, Yuan Shikai.
The film has allegedly not performed as well as its predecessor. There is a lot of HK-based chit-chat about how the Mainland is inflating the box office figures. However, with a bunch of Chinese political anniversaries yet to come, a galaxy of film stars to choose from and a movie hungry audience who have only 20 foreign films per year to (legally) choose from in addition to 450 Chinese films of varying quality, I think Sino audiences would be lapping this up.
For the home crowd, if you’re interested in Chinese cinema (and if you’re not, I gotta ask you: why not?), this may not be the cream of the crop, but it’s an impressive and entertaining look at the way one of the world’s biggest economies (number two and still trying harder) sees the world.
Though as I got through final credit crawl, I did wonder what the forefathers of Chinese Communism would have thought of the sponsorship logos for Cadillac and Shanghai General Motors that came just before the Dolby Digital trademark.
