Underplayed Gems

The Founding of a Republic (2009)

The Founding of a Republic poster
Original title
建国大业
Directed by
Han Sanping, Huang Jianxin
Genre
drama film, war film, historical film
Country
People's Republic of China
Runtime
2h 18m
Rated
M
Rating
5.3 of 10 from 66 voters
Elsewhere
IMDb
The 3D catalogue: film cases on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalogue in 3D

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How it feels

This film covers the final years of the Chinese Communist Revolution after World War Two. It shows the political and military conflict between Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek leading up to the founding of the People's Republic of China.

epicpatrioticserioushistoricaleducationalgrand-scaledramatic

What happens

The Founding of a Republic is a Chinese historical drama produced in 2009 to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China and was made to portray the final years of the Chinese Communist Revolution that followed the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945). This film was co-directed by Huang Jianxin and Han Sanping, and includes many famous actors such as Andy Lau, Ge You, as well as other directors such as Jiang Wen, and Chen Kaige. The main protagonists Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek were played by highly renowned actors, Tang Guoqiang and Zhang Guoli. One of the purposes of this movie aside from reenacting the events of the Chinese Communist Revolution was to also attract a younger audience to view films that revolved around government propaganda, which they aim to accomplish by including famous actors that would draw the attention of the youth. According to the executive at one of China's top multiplex chains, this film is also unique because the film unusually marries "the core of an 'ethically inspiring' film with commercial packaging.". Additionally, this is the first zhuxuanlu (主旋律; i.e. propaganda) film to work solely with cinematic audio-visual methods to achieve its political and ideological goals. It is a milestone in that since its production in 2009, the distinction between zhuxuanlu and commercial film has become blurred; they have become primarily indistinguishable from each other. This film was released on September 16, 2009, in mainland China and during its release, it had a tremendous amount of support from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

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