A Chinese propaganda film without the heavy dogma and dour treatment that would have been expected a generation ago, Beginning of the Great Revival is a slick and lavish historical epic charting the 1921 formation of the Chinese Communist Party.
A worthy history lesson on the founding of the Chinese Communist Party with only partially entertaining aspects.
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Slant MagazineBill Weber
Slant MagazineBill Weber
Beginning of the Great Revival is muddled, all right, but it's the helter-skelter speed at which it ticks off names and incidents, both in hopelessly confused action and on-screen text, that seems nearly unprecedented.
There hasn't been such an egregiously self-congratulating piece of Communist propaganda since, arguably, the peak of '60s Soviet musicals, but Revival is so repetitive and po-faced that there's no kitsch value to be had.