*The Founding of a Republic is a part of CUEAFS's Udine Far East Film Festival 12 coverage. The review has been produced for CUEAFS and our partners Cine-Vue
 Alternative title: Jian Guo Da Ye
Written by: Chen Baoguang and Wang Xingdong
Directed by: Han Sanping and Huang Jianxin
Starring Guoqiang Tang, Guoli Zhang and Wang Bing
Four years of political battles, warfare and complicated history is what The Founding of a Republic tried to squeeze into a little more than two hours of screen time. And, to no surprise, more than 1500 days and God knows how many people and political parties could not be fitted into such a short time-slot. For anyone unfamiliar with Chinese history in depth (not simply knowing about Kuomintang and Communist Party’s battles, the civil war and the final formation of the National People’s Congress), the film will be packed with too many people, short dialogues and scenes that shift geographically at 180 degrees and often require screen text to explain when and where things are happening.
This is the main thing wrong with the film, for the most part. Since it was ‘guided’ by the Chinese government and it was produced to mark 60 years of the foundation of the People’s Republic in China, The Founding of a Republic was to inevitably unease Western audiences. The film was not overthrown by political party propaganda and it wasn’t taken over by the presence of a lot of familiar faces. It was not striving to be a war film, as realistic as some of the latest CGI-filled epics, and the bombing scenes reminded of older war films, such as Pearl Harbour or Black Hawk Down (both produced in 2001), whilst the purposefully fake CGI effects delivered more sense of actual historical reality than it would have been to pretend everything was actually happening in real time.
Whether it was politically correct is an endless argument, which couldn’t be won even among the Chinese. As it is with every country’s history, government, political parties and ideologies, stories differ and even history, as it is written in the books, is not always the same. What really happened and what people were really like is a knowledge that is only privilege to those who were alive at that time. Though if the viewer desires to compare The Founding of a Republic to other films, depicting the history of the KMT and CPC or the civil war and its end, they might say that although some preferences are shown as to the communist party and Mao Zedong, it might be the first time that Chiang Kai-shek has been portrayed as a little bit more of a human being – multilayered, having his human greatness and human flaws, just as any human does, whether a warrior and a political leader or a nobody.
Whilst the beginning of the film was almost impossible to follow, rapidly shifting in time and space, presenting different characters in their short dialogues, which would only later contribute to the story, at some point the speed died and it turned into long conversation scenes between the party leaders and their followers, only disrupted at points by the war scenes. Perhaps it is due to having the need to tell a certain part of history in detail, which would though be impossible without preceding the story with introduction of the key figures and events that led to those consequences. The film could not talk about the civil war, for instance, without having mentioned the Double Tenth Agreement and its failure.
What is pleasant about the film is to see a production that could include Zhang Ziyi, Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Andy Lau and Donnie Yen and not be centered on celebrities. All the main roles have been trusted upon a lot less famous Chinese actors, which, for once, lets the viewer concentrate on the story, rather than the acting ability of a certain celebrity. The English dialogue did fail to impress, as it sounded quite fake and scripted, although that is a common risk with English dialogue in foreign productions, as it was lastly seen in Ip Man 2, which miserably failed while using it.
Overall, the film does tell fascinating history and it probably delivers to Chinese audiences, as most historical films would appeal to people who not only know the history, but are also affected by it and it a way connected to it, which makes the topic quite delicate. With the exhausting length and the fragmented time and space continuum, it might not deliver to the Westerners, even to those with interest or knowledge of Chinese post-war history. The Founding of a Republic is a piece to be appreciated, though, despite all its flaws, as it has not been produced to please and entertain, but rather to educate, and the fact that it is not taken over by political propaganda, but tries to portray a more balanced historical past and more human characters with their shades of grey, is to be acknowledged.
*Image source:
http://dannylim.files.wordpress.com/2010/01/the-founding-of-a-republic-2009-2.jpgLabels: cueafs, east asian film, far east film, feff, festival, movie reviews, udine |
