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1911(辛亥革命)

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China, Hong Kong · 2011
Rated R · 1h 39m
Director Jackie Chan, Zhang Li
Starring Jackie Chan, Li Bingbing, Joan Chen, Jaycee Chan
Genre Adventure, Drama, Action, History, War

At the beginning of the 20th century, China is in a state of crisis. The country is split into warring factions, the citizens are starving, and recent political reforms have made matters worse, not better. The ruling Qing Dynasty, led by a seven-year-old emperor, and his ruthless mother, Empress Dowager Longyu is completely out of touch after 250 years of unquestioned power. Huang Xing has recently returned from Japan, where he has studied the art of modern warfare. When he finds his country falling apart, he feels he has no choice but to pick up the sword.

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What are critics saying?

40

Movieline by

1911 isn't propaganda but more a relentless, serious, fiercely nationalistic bit of historical mythmaking.

40

New York Daily News by Joe Neumaier

This drama, as traditional as its subject was epochal, is earnest and studious to a fault. Rarely has a film about upheaval felt more like a textbook.

30

Variety by Justin Chang

Resulting mish-mash of exposition and speechifying opts to summarize rather than dramatize; one spends nearly as much time reading indigestible lumps of onscreen text as one does listening to the often distractingly post-dubbed dialogue.

38

Boston Globe by Mark Feeney

It swoops, it pans, it noses around. The camerawork is almost as agitated as the editing. The directors seem to be trying to compensate for all the speechifying with as much random motion as possible.

30

Village Voice by Nick Pinkerton

If the success of epic storytelling were determined by the sheer number of unnecessary on-screen name tags, 1911 would be a masterpiece. But the small matters of characterization, audience identification, and scene-making are entirely absent here.

40

Time Out by Nick Schager

The star and co-director appears hopelessly out of place, trapped in a variety of awkward-fitting uniforms while forced to offer up laughably obvious battlefield advice ("Avoid gunfire!").

50

The New York Times by Rachel Saltz

What should be rousing stuff - a republic is born! the chains of feudalism thrown off! - remains a kind of lavishly illustrated history lesson. Even the irrepressible Mr. Chan (this is his 100th film) seems subdued.

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