Beginning of the Great Revival, the movie commemorating the 90th anniversary of China’s Communist Party, has been the hottest topic among Chinese netizens for the past few weeks. To reach the intended box office goal of 800 million RMB, China postponed Transformers 3, supposedly the biggest rival during this period until late July; government staff, SOE workers and school children are being mobilized by their higher-ups to go watch the movie.
Here’s a wonderfully sarcastic picture that was shared by a Weibo user: It’s Bumblebee holding a banner which reads Transformers 3 wishes China’s Communist Party longevity.
Bumblebee wishes the Party happy anniversary
On Sina Weibo alone, there are over 900,000 messages about the movie. Some show that the movie is now “stealing” theaters from other movies, as cinemas sell Great Revival tickets to movie-goers regardless of what they want to see, and then change the ticket name with a pen (pictured below). One English-language blogger relates how she went to see the film, only to find that she was the only one in the theater.
weibo.com/2093050600/eDmAOAI7Dhn
Most of China’s major websites have closed comments and ratings for the movie. But people have found a place to speak outside the great firewall: IMDb. Over on the popular movie site the film received a terrible score of 2.2/10 from over 1300 ratings. Most critics are saying that the movie is nothing but a star-stacked craptacular, with no story line or clear narrative.
But there are quite a few positive ratings and comments too. Some say that one should really know history well before watching the movie, which they assert tells ‘real’ history. But the overwhelming majority of users are giving a big thumbs down, saying that the movie is nothing more than a video version of a Chinese history book.
The movie will still profit… Because the party says it must.
A couple of comments from Weibo:
"I am the VIP tonight, watching Beginning of the Great Revival"（picture shows no one in front of him）
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