The Founding of a Republic (2009) (2024)

Popular reviews

• Review by ibi ★★

  holy sh*t they got everybody in this hoe 😭

• Review by Graham_Sierota ★★★★ 1

  "The Founding of a Republic" is a Chinese historical and political drama film that aims at providing a detailed account of the creation of the People's Republic of China. By all means a propaganda film, it was directly sponsored by the Chinese state and it stars several worldwide famous Chinese actors, whether in the stellar controversial real-life figures or in brief and well-crafted, almost impossible-to-tell cameos. Jackie Chan has a 2-minute scene as a reporter, for example. However, the fact that it is biased shouldn't prevent any movie buff with a taste for political drama from checking it out. In fact, the movie admirably attempts to portray all sides of the struggle fairly, and it often succeeds.

  The story begins…

• Review by Jon🐬 ★★★★½

  Sooo much better than its reputation. Very well written, directed, and acted, so far as I could tell. Translation to English leaves a lot to be desired on any of the copies you’ll find on YouTube, Chinese being a language full of particular historical idioms and turns of phrase that can be obtuse without contextual understanding while translating. There’s quite a few moments where a group might laugh at someone’s statement where the language itself as written in the subtitles doesn’t indicate any comedy. I’ve actually started this many times over the past couple years, never getting past the first ten minutes because it was just an intense overload of information and didn’t seem like it would get into a…

• Review by MadreMothra ★★★★★

  This film says it all of the corruption and struggle of the past. It’s a feel good movie that makes people feel warm and feel good for the new better days to come.

• Review by hotsake ★★★ 6

  The movie isn't an epic spectacle nor is it a historical drama trying to humanize, educate, and place things into context for the audience. This is a historical propaganda reminder film, made less to celebrate Mao and the creation of the Republic, the film lacks the depth and characterizations to do that. Instead seems to just want to remind the audience of the struggle involved with giving the people what they wanted, needed, deserved, and asked for.

• Review by IvanCjw ★★½

  As far as propaganda films go, the US makes a ton of them too, most of which are lacklustre and induce a good amount of eye rolling. China however, has to compete not only by sugar coating their entire history, but also having probably the largest ensemble cast of A and B list actors ever. The sheer number of political and military figures are too many to keep track and remember unless you're a history buff, and the near godlike and benevolent portrayal of Mao is quite laughable.

  Witness the power of the CCP.

• Review by John ★★★★★

  Glory to the People’s Republic of China.

  Long live chairman Mao.

• Review by Nilknarf ★★½

  The script was just a continuing narrative of the history of the founding of the People’s Republic of China from the Party’s perspective of course. The cinematography was pretty good, but the story lacked continuity and drama. There were hundreds of plot threads trying to touch on every aspect of the struggle. It’s all a lot of talking with characters being introduced every scene. This epic could of used much more work on the screenplay and it needed better pacing.

  A lot of emphasis was placed on the corrupt ways of the Nationalist government and how all the selfish corruption lost them the country, all from the PRC perspective of course. The film focused on the glorious birth of the…

• Review by Josef Wirth ★½ 1

  A Chinese state-funded blockbuster depicting the events after the second world war leading up to the founding of the People‘s Republic of China on October the 1st, 1949. This film marks a turning-point in Chinese „main-melody“ films, combining the style and technique of Hollywood-blockbusters, catering to nationalist sentiments in China, portraying the party narrative of the „founding“ myth, in essence, a commercially crafted and commercially successful „educational“ film about the „founding“ of the main symbols of the PRC. The ending showing the PRC flag waving in front of blue sky most clearly constructs the connection between past and present celebrations of the founding of the PRC, one of the main goals of this production.

  Huang‘s talent lies in crafting multiple…

• Review by firstfaraday ★★★★★

  VIVA A VIDA E OBRA DE MAO TSE TUNG.

• Review by Fawkins ★

  If your gut is telling you not to bother with this even with the talent involved, listen to it. Somehow manages to be bloated and rushed at the same time. Complete slop that depends on you already buying into this state-sponsored version of history ahead of time

• Review by nymph ★★★★½

  go-to movie to raise my revolutionary optimism. long live chairman mao!