The Founding of a Republic (建国大业) has been widely heralded as the Chinese Communist Party’s star-studded cinematic present for itself to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its founding of the People’s Republic of China. It debuted this past Thursday, and I saw it yesterday.
The big question on many people’s minds is: Is this movie going to be a massive propaganda piece about the evil Nationalists (KMT) and a whitewashed version of the Communist Party of China (CPC, aka CCP)?
Actually, that question may be more prominent amongst foreigners and expats than Chinese. “Oh brother, there he goes again”, the peanut gallery groans. Come now, it’s true, and it’s true because — believe it or not — many Chinese already expect the film to be propaganda. They’re keenly aware of the circumstances surrounding it and the bigger question for them is: How many stars can they spot and identify?
Apparently there are 172 celebrities involved. Oh look, here's a poster with some them!
Propaganda Propaganda
But, going back to the question of greater import to my target audience, I’m happy to report that while a few events were portrayed in a noticeably skewed manner, there’s thankfully few — if any — obvious to outrageous rewritings of history (excusing dramatic artistic license). In fact, the movie was far more gracious in their handling of Chiang Kai-Shek and the KMT Nationalists than I expected. (Of course, this was because I feared the worst from this movie, and now I probably owe the CCP responsible for this movie a measure of respect for, well, not living up to my fears.) Unlike so many lesser PRC produced films and television shows set in the Chinese Civil War era, Chiang Kai-Shek and the KMT were not grossly vilified here. They were portrayed, I think, rather respectfully as multi-faceted humans with their human greatness, human flaws, and human mistakes.
Chiang Kai-Shek and Li Zongren, decked out in pimp regalia.
As for the Mao Zedong and the Communists, well, they were portrayed decidedly without much weakness and fault, save maybe being far poorer than the KMT Nationalists. While Chiang Kai-Shek and the Nationalists are repeatedly shown being driven around in fancy cars and pondering the precariousness of their rule within grand villas, Mao & Co. are huddled in mud huts, conserving candles, and laughing about getting stewed meat twice a month. This juxtaposition, of course, serves to make Mao and his band of merry Communist leaders seem the rugged, scrappy, and long-suffering David that eventually brings down the Goliath.
Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong, with dramatic shadows.
Despite the outward trappings of that Goliath, it is also shown as festering and faltering from political in-fighting, widespread corruption in its ranks, and declining popularity amongst the populace, while being abandoned by its American allies. All of these contribute to the eventual collapse of the KMT Nationalist government and their retreat/escape to the island of Taiwan. Chiang Kai-Shek’s famous reflection that the KMT largely screwed itself is also faithfully depicted.
Interestingly to reassuringly, the irony inherent in scenes concerning KMT Nationalist government corruption, and one particular scene of the KMT being publicly denounced for squelching speech and dissent, were not lost upon many of the Chinese in the cinema’s audience. They snickered their acknowledgment of these same problems continuing to plague modern China, under CCP rule, as they plagued China under the KMT over 60 years ago.
Amusingly to annoyingly, the film does seem to portray the Mao and the CPC’s ascension to power as being something “democratically” willed by a bunch of “pro-democracy” political parties at the 1949 Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) that established the PRC. This is done by repeatedly emphasizing their involvement and “pro-democracy” namesakes despite the fact that they made up less than half of the delegates (the rest were all CPC). Their opposition wouldn’t have made a difference anyway. As we know today, any of these political parties that survived have survived only in name, controlled and subservient as they are to the CPC.
At one point in the movie, where Mao had largely defeated the KMT and was beginning to establish the People’s Republic of China, one Chinese person commented: “And now Mao becomes the emperor.”
English Subtitles
Those who cannot understand Chinese will be pleased to know that the movie is almost completely subtitled in English. A few captions identifying many of the characters were not translated, but all the dialog is. That said, while the English subtitles are decent, I noticed some meaningful nuance and subtlety lost in the translations. Be prepared to see the word “democratic” thrown around a lot, and for those who are a bit confused by it, just remember you’re thinking of “democratic” slightly differently.
Lots of Commercials
One somewhat random thing I noticed were the massive amount of commercials preceding the start of the film. I’m not talking about previews for upcoming films but a long series of back-to-back 30-second commercial spots for both local and foreign brands alike, much of them being car commercials. This was notable because, in my experience, most movies start on the listed showtime in China, unlike America where most people take for granted that they can be slightly late to the theatre because the first few minutes are usually previews. For The Founding of a Republic, however, there was something like 8-10 minutes of commercials before the film finally started. This is unusual for most movies shown in China and I suspect a lot of companies intentionally purchased commercial time for this particular movie, expecting a whole lot of Chinese people to be hitting the cinemas to watch it. Makes sense, right?
Definitely Worth Watching
The Founding of a Republic isn’t a great movie, but it’s definitely good, having plenty of good acting, good scenes, and an inherently intriguing historical storyline. If you’re familiar with the history of the Chinese Civil War, you should enjoy it, partly checking if they’ve changed anything and partly to appreciate how they portrayed what happen over 60 years ago. If you’re like me, and generally pretty cynical about the CCP’s propaganda, I think you’ll also walk out appreciating the movie for not being the shameless propaganda piece we could easily imagine. Instead, it was a genuinely well-made film that helps us remember one of the most contentious and pivotal moments of modern Chinese history.
More information about “The Founding of a Republic” from the English-language China blogosphere:
- Preview and translated netizen comments by chinaSMACK.
- Translated netizen controversy over the actors’ nationalities by Global Voices Online.
- Review by Elaine Chow of Shanghaiist.
The irony of this film is that it describes the conditions that led to rise of the Chinese Communist Party yet, outside the theatre, Beijing is in almost total lock-down mode: soldiers and police line every street and alley; hotel guests must vacate their rooms facing Chang An street; no kites can be flown; sales of knives and scissors have been banned; people told to stay in-doors and not watch National Day Parade from their windows; censorship and media control has been intensified, etc.
However, peace and harmony has been restored throughout the country. The people are happy!!
“Beijing is in almost total lock-down mode: soldiers and police line every street and alley; hotel guests must vacate their rooms facing Chang An street; no kites can be flown…” What in the hell are you on about? Sorry but none of this is happening buddy.
Way to keep tabs on events, Andy.
Thanks for the review, but I am pretty at loss with your contextualizing remarks. Why should this depiction of the KMT NOT be propaganda? Do you think this plot is not carefully coordinated with the propaganda department? The change in portraying the KMT is a trend going on for quite some time. And you can be damn sure there is a propaganda department directive on it.
I’m contrasting the portrayal of the KMT in this movie with some of the worst I’ve seen from lesser PRC productions. I agree less vilified portrayals of the KMT have been a — I daresay positive — trend in recent times.
Just my impression but the Taiwanese films have tended to be as or even more biased. The fact was the KMT was horribly corrupt during the 30s and 40s, and didn’t require much exaggeration on the CCP’s part. Comparatively, the KMT had to bend over backwards to explain why the communists succeeded, with all sorts of far-fetched conspiracy theories. The contrast between the corruption of the Nationalists then and China now is pretty striking though. Makes me wonder if the KMT could have straightened themselves out if they had more time.
Positive portrayals of the KMT and Chiang Kai-shek are certainly part of the progaganda value of the film, but it would be naive to think this represents a thawing. It’s not thawing or tolerance or acceptance, so much as it is back-pedalling, a way of saying, “Come on, Taiwan…we started out as brothers, look at our common history…isn’t it time to come back into the fold?” That’s the real message of this film, and perhaps the most disturbing.
Sorry, I disagree that is the “real message” of this film, that such a message is at all “disturbing” (mainland China has always appealed to common history, this isn’t something they’re “back-pedaling” to), and strongly fail to read that sort of conniving evil into this film.
I do view it as a positive trend because it does show a higher level of maturity. In earlier movies, KMT was outright vilified as people buy that by then. Well, people don’t buy that today. So if just were for the film to make money, they still would had to tell the story a little bit more human than before. That means people are thinking deeper than before, film maker are realizing that reality and accommodate it. And the government realized it as well and didn’t get into the way by banning it. That’s quite an improvement.
While I enjoyed seeing the story, and did enjoy the film overall, I feel it fell short of reaching my cinematic expectations, especially in the directing.
And I think anyone who watched will agree — the English-language scenes are horrendous, contrived, and reek of made-for-TV melodrama Z-list effort.
The film itself is not that bad, If you have knowledge of that era and can follow through the timeline. It does make for an enjoyable historic walkthrough. But, with the success and skill we’ve seen from Chinese directors in the past few years, I was expecting something more spectacular.
There are English language scenes?
Awesome :D
Okay so how exactly did you all get to watch the film? Isn’t it only released in Chinese theaters? I can’t even find a decent copy online.
Well, I’m in China. :) I haven’t tried looking for an online rip though.
It’s showing in Australia!
I need to see this movie.
very good movie, if you wanna learn a little about modern chinese history, although not 100% accurate, this film gives it a fair portrayal. you’ll see why KMT lost and how CCP won.
furthermore, if you are chinese or of chinese descent, you have to watch this movie in your lifetime.
Josh has a slightly different take:
http://cupofcha.com/2009/11/26/so-thats-how-the-republic-was-founded.html
I’m rather pleased I passed on the experience.
得民心者得天下。This is a well known Chinese phrase saying that “He who command the loyalty of the people rules.” This film had show exactly that regardless of all the propaganda controversies.
Well after watching this film for more than over an half an hour,(when I got it of course), I was in shock to see a multiple of top stars, such as Jet Li, and Jackie Chan making comel apperances in the film and not part taken as characters within the film?
No infact the movie is telling us about the Chinese civil war that happened right after the defeat of Japan. Where two party leaders, such as KMT and CRP go head to head to see who gets to control china.
We got numerous party factions in here to such as Demecratic partys of china too. However, not so important but worth mentioing.
The portral of Chiang Kai-Shek is mostly well done. The same goes for Mao Zedong.
The movie shows us that the Nationlist is fighting a losing war, because the Communist army is push down on them. Not only that, but more people, especialy the civilians are sideing with CRP more, than with the KMT.
Overal a good movie, but it doesn’t show the faults or mistakes of CRP, it shows KMT spiral down into a defeat and exile? Personally I find this movie to be more of making the Commuies look good and not portray an all out film about both parties and their struggles. A great deal of the battle scenes portay the Red army runing down battle feilds over dead nationalist soldiers and nothing more,(sounds fishy hmm),.
Oh and Josph Stalin of Russia is seen briefly in the movie too,(shudder),.
This is the worst film I have ever seen, If I had not seen some of these actors in other films, I would have told them not to quite their day jobs… it was like the actors were reading out of a Comic book, It was horrible… I want my 2 hours of wasted life back…
its a pitty it is not in english. I can not see the sub-titles :(
Beautiful movie :)
Recommendation! A+
Look at the way they construct the drama in this movie. Notice the music–ominous in the background whenever the KMT is portrayed, jolly and twinkly whenever Mao shows his haircut. Mao smiles, lives (the idea that he is hiding is well hidden in the direction–not the content, but the visual portrayal) in mud huts with villagers whom he always treats as equals. Chiang never takes off his military uniform. He is constantly cossetted during his time on screen.
Propaganda is in symbolism as much as content. This film is saturated with the former and heavily skews the historical accuracy of the latter. This is shameless propaganda. The more you know about propaganda, advertising, writing, directing, or the construction of any art, the more horrified you will be. The more you know about history, the more disgusted.
Your central idea that worse propaganda films have been released is neither a meaningful nor encouraging sign.