Beginning of the Great Revival

[Drunk Monk]

Sort of the PRC version of Lincoln. This is the story of Mao, on a grand scale with a top-notch cast. Serious propaganda as it 'fuck yeah China!' It's dense. There's a new character introduced like every five minutes. It's hard to follow, even if you know the history, which I do, more or less, although less by this film's measure. A lot of speeches which probably sound really stirring in Chinese, but come off rather flat in subtitles. Oh, and there are subtitles every five minutes too that explain the point in history that is occurring. It's a lot of reading for a movie. Chow Yun-Fat steals the show as Yuan Shikai, but as you all know, Yuan plays only a small part in Mao's tale. Tang Guoqiang didn't work for me as Mao - he was too sweet and the whole love affair was so sappy. It ends in a patriotic Chicom song. There's some spectacle - some fine battle scenes, mob scenes and monster sets - but it's like reading high school history book, if our high school history books even bothered with PRC history.

There's a good calvary sword charge into machine gun fire - very martyr worshipping. No bollywood number except for that stupid patriotic song at the end.