abcdefg Posted June 17, 2011 at 04:52 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 04:52 AM I saw 建党伟业 yesterday. More accurately, I saw the first 30 or 40 minutes of it and then left. What a mess. Disjointed political propaganda, jumping from one "significant event" to another without much connection, cast of thousands, big-budget special effects, famous actors including Chow Yun-fat 周润发 and Andy Lau 刘德华。 The film was made to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. Maybe it redeemed itself during the last half. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DespikableMi Posted June 17, 2011 at 05:32 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 05:32 AM Lol... I saw the title and cover of this movie and thought it was pretty cool, but after I read the reviews and ratings I didn't even bother checking out the trailer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhwj Posted June 17, 2011 at 06:09 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 06:09 AM It doesn't exactly redeem itself, but it does get more engaging during the last third, once the student movements get underway and there's finally a sense of motivation for all of the events. The sequence that intercuts the treaty conference with street lectures by Chen Duxiu, and then the student demonstrations, is actually fairly interesting. Unfortunately, the rest of the movie is a mess -- shifting tones, bad staging, and ridiculous dialogue. Basically, inept direction, which is completely understandable, since it comes from two main directors and three "guest directors", whose styles are nothing alike. The subplot with Andy Lau is completely irrelevant (although it does provide an unintentionally hilarious train-station scene that's a bad pastiche of 1930s Hollywood), and without the background music you'd be hard-pressed to figure out whether the good guys were winning or losing the battle. The actual Founding of the Party mixes dry committee meetings with Keystone Kops chase stuff, and culminates with a sentimental singalong, completely absent of any actual emotion, against a badly CGI-ed lake landscape. The characters of Hu Shi, Chen Duxiu, and Li Dazhao are pretty good, on the whole, and their animated speechifying is not half-bad as a way to bring the political debates of the era to life. I didn't care for Liu Ye's portrayal of Mao very much. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skylee Posted June 17, 2011 at 10:51 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 10:51 AM I have heard that people are not allowed to review this film on film-review websites (in case of negative comments). Any truth in this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhwj Posted June 17, 2011 at 11:41 AM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 11:41 AM On the Douban page, at least, no comments are available, and even though they've added the star rating tool (it wasn't there a couple of days ago), it doesn't display the average rating of the movie. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcdefg Posted June 17, 2011 at 01:52 PM Author Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 01:52 PM I have heard that people are not allowed to review this film on film-review websites (in case of negative comments). Any truth in this? Oops! I probably should have kept my mouth shut. I went to see it in the afternoon at a 3:20 bargain showing. There were only about 10 or 15 people in the hall. After 20 or 30 minutes most of them were looking at their mobile phones instead of the big screen unless there was shooting. Pretty sure I was the only foreigner. After leaving, I slipped into another hall and saw part of "Pirates of the Caribbean" instead. It was disappointing too. A bad day for movies all around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amandagmu Posted June 17, 2011 at 03:01 PM Report Share Posted June 17, 2011 at 03:01 PM I think the best movies these days can be found on DVD at the local shop or tudou.com. Just sayin'..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abcdefg Posted June 18, 2011 at 01:38 AM Author Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 at 01:38 AM I think the best movies these days can be found on DVD at the local shop or tudou.com. You are probably right. But I'm a dinosaur and still like the feeling of sitting in a big dark, air conditioned theater in a comfortable seat and watching something on the big screen with surround sound and all. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted June 18, 2011 at 08:03 AM Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 at 08:03 AM I saw a scathing review of an unnamed movie that must have been this one and the shenanigans around it in yesterdays' Global Times, of all newspapers. No idea how it managed to get in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gato Posted June 18, 2011 at 09:59 AM Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 at 09:59 AM Funny. Here is that article. No comments yet on the article. http://www.globaltimes.cn/NEWS/tabid/99/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/661908/The-strange-conspiracy-of-the-film-which-dare-not-speak-its-name.aspx The strange conspiracy of the film which dare not speak its name Global Times | June 16, 2011 19:11 By Doriah Morrison 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted June 18, 2011 at 10:48 AM Report Share Posted June 18, 2011 at 10:48 AM That's great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miss_China_so_much Posted June 19, 2011 at 02:42 PM Report Share Posted June 19, 2011 at 02:42 PM It's actually not bad........If you look at it in a sarcastic way. Here are some funny comments I've read: "If Han Sanpin lives long enough, he'd get a chance to direct 建党伟业2." "They should put a big warning in cinema: 'Strictly for professional performers only. Don't try it at home. It may cause disappearing or death'." "I feel so excited...gonna shout out together with my comrades: 'Freedom, Democracy'..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chinchillus Posted June 23, 2011 at 11:04 AM Report Share Posted June 23, 2011 at 11:04 AM In VeryCD.com, it has a rating of only 2.2 points. It's just a mess of non-Chinese actors and actresses who make political propaganda. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lu Posted June 25, 2011 at 07:46 AM Report Share Posted June 25, 2011 at 07:46 AM Gato: yes, that's the article. I'm surprised it's still on there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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