Leofwine_draca
THE GREAT REVIVAL is a lively retelling of early 20th century China, a tumultuous period where the old ways and the new ways collided and many factions seemed to continually war with each other in a bid for power. It's a complex and sometimes epic-feeling production, so I'm surprised to see it rated so low here on the IMDb.I suspect the reason is that it's a blatant piece of propaganda, with Mao Zedong portrayed as a crusading hero; the story stops before the later troubles that surrounded his career. Now, I'm not bothered by watching propaganda films; I've seen plenty of North Korean efforts and, let's be honest, America makes their own share of flag-waving guff. Propaganda alone isn't a reason to rate a film down.THE GREAT REVIVAL isn't a perfect film and anybody trying to keep track of all the main characters will soon be scratching their heads in puzzlement. Still, it's an expansive and expensive-looking production, and it's never boring even if some of the material seems extraneous or glossed over too quickly. The stuff with the students riots is particularly watchable, and spotting all of the familiar faces from Chow Yun-Fat to Daniel Wu, Fan Bingbing, Andy Lau, Simon Yam, and even John Woo, is a delight in itself.
dbborroughs
Know at the start I've over rated this film a point or two simply because the film is nowhere near as bad as the rating of 2.3 readers have given this film.This film is a telling of the founding of the communist party from the point of the 1911 revolution on to the the actual founding. Its a star studded flag waiving puff piece put together by official Chinese authorities.A great film to look at the film could have and should have been a masterpiece of more than the technical arts.The problem is that the films march to compress several decades of complex history into a couple of hours makes the film a highlight reel where we get clips of events which have the significance explained by titles on the screen. The result is not the living history they were aiming for, but rather it's a dull museum piece... or a lesser History Channel special. I kept waiting for Edward Hermann's narration to kick in and explain the away the slow spots.On some level I kind of liked the film, but more because it gave me some basic understanding of the events that transpired. I completely understand that the film is tinged with pro-Communist propaganda but at the same time much of it is clearly visible...and beside things move so fast you'd have to be crazy to completely accept that this is everything that happened.Worth a look see for those with an interest in Historucal epics... then again I'd go for the much better Founding of a Republic if given the choice.
conanly1991
Just like the movie that came in about few years ago, propagating the government, and how they had established the "new China", this is a documentary film, trying to deliver the history at that time. I see that many of the reviews said that there were not a storyline throughout the film, and can't see the connections between them. However, as a historical documentary, I consider the film without a storyline, but rather, a timeline. The timeline went from 1909 (I think) to before WW2. I in fact do not consider this movie boring, and believe that it has its positive sides. Unlike some other government productions, this movie is rather subjective, with not too much intentions to propagate the govenment. Again, it was meant to go over the whole history of the communist govenment in this period of time. But some recommendations about the film, if you aren't Chinese, don't watch the movie, if you hate the govenment, I mean, by hate, don't watch it, if you do not know anything and don't want to know about the historical figures of China, don't watch the movie. I didn't find the film extremely interesting, but it briefly helped me go over the history of China.
jay_yan
This movie was shot in China, still firmly controlled by Chinese Communist Party. Of course it will contain the story told by CCP. Undoubtedly it contains endless speeches to show how necessary and great CCP was. So please forget about that part. If you see the movie to look for art, drama, affection, of course you will be disappointed.But what makes this movie different from the other Chinese propaganda movies is its huge cast. There are tons of famous Chinese, including Hong Kong and oversea Chinese, actors and actresses. You can never see so many stars in one movie, other than Jian Guo Da Ye, also produced by the same producer with an equally huge cast two years ago. The fun of watching this movie is to "count stars", instead of follow its boring and revisioned story.
AD
