Movie Review – 1911 (2011)

1911 is a ponderous endeavour that purports to tell the grand tale of how revolutionaries managed to rise up and force the abdication of the Qing Dynasty rulers ending thousands of years of feudal rule in China.  With such colourful source material it is a wonder that the film ends up as nothing more than an inert mess that is so haphazardly sewn together that it fails in its primary goal of educating audiences in answering the basic question as to why and how the revolution came to pass.  It is a damning commentary to make when I say that merely reading the Wikipedia page on the web will provide much more coherent and perceptive historical knowledge than this cinematic Titanic.

For the most part this is a period of history that is totally ignored in Western history classes although students from mainland China and Southeast Asia have a much better understanding of the events in question.  Certainly whenever one thinks of revolutions one immediately begins to wonder just how exactly events transpired to provoke citizens to take up arms such as being overly taxed, unjust laws, a widening gap between the rich and poor, a lack of political leadership etc.  The reasons are too numerous and as all things in life it is probably a combination of hundreds of these grievances that led to the straw that broke the camel’s back.  Thus as 1911 starts there is no doubt many in the audience are going to be hoping for some insight into how this period of history unfolded but lo and behold it isn’t long before one realizes something is amiss.

For all its faults 1911 is an often times visual epic in the grand traditional of David Lean and seems to have its heart in the right place by trying to show how downtrodden commoners had finally had enough of living under the iron boot of totally incompetent and corrupt Royal leadership.  The film essentially is split into two separate yet concurrent narratives one showcasing a rather beaten-up looking Jackie Chan as General Huang Xing who is tasked by his compatriot Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (Winston Chao) to lead parts of the revolutionary army in battle against the Qing dynasty forces.  The other half of the film focuses on Dr. Sun as he travels outside of China on a kind of global tour to ask for monetary and political aid from any that would listen to him.

At first, there is nothing wrong with this parallel structure as it provides a nice contrast between Huang Xing leading troops amongst the blaring gunfire and stench of death on the battlefields and the more stately exploits of Dr. Sun who dresses smartly in a Western business suit as he attempts to gain support through his oratory skills.  However, the film ultimately comes unglued because it fails to realize that merely showing historical events as they occur is pointless without any emotional resonance.  Thus audiences need to feel sympathetic with the various characters but also informed and given context as to why and how certain events occur and the resulting ramifications from them.  Here the film botches this at nearly every turn by employing extensive use of titles and short blurbs that appear and summarize what is actually going on at that moment in time.  Thus there are large tracts of the film such as the opening ten minutes where viewers are inundated with tons of different names attributed to actors which appear for mere seconds yet there is no attempt made to give any characterizations to any of them.

Case in point is the opening shot which shows a female revolutionary named Qiu Jin (Ning Jing) as she is being led to her public execution.  I will easily admit that I had no idea who she was and had to go research it after the movie ended to find out that she was a feminist writer who regularly championed women’s rights and endeavoured to constantly speak out against the Qing government.  Yet this is a damning critique of the film as it offers no account of her eminent place in this period of history.  Instead, she shows up and smiles a bit as she is being led through the crowds while everyone stares almost in reverence of her presence.  Then the sword literally and metaphorically falls and it is a straight cut to the film’s title and we never hear of her or how her act of sacrifice managed to spur others to take up her plight.

The utter lack of cogent information is a major mistake and gives the impression that the film is primarily aimed at those who already know the history and the famous figures of the time.  For newcomers this is unfortunately maddening and leads to a feeling of extreme detachment as many will just be frustrated at not knowing what is going on.

Making matters worse the lead characters themselves are given the extreme short-shift and are only defined from one or two major traits.  Thus Dr. Sun appears to have a high degree of nobility, inherent charisma and is a wonderfully persuasive speaker yet that is all the information we are given.  There’s never a scene which tries to answer how a simple doctor suddenly decided to overthrow the monarchy leaving audiences to wonder what made this famous figure tick.  Even worse is Huang Xing who is purported to be a great general yet spends the movie apparently lurching from defeat to defeat.

It gets actually frustrating to see him command his troops as we are never given a glimpse into his thought process and how he comes to his strategy to defeat the enemy.  Instead, time and time again he practices what appears to be a full frontal assault on the enemy as if somehow hoping that sheer numbers and strength in their beliefs will win the day.  Thus it is ironic that time and time again Huang leads his troops into battle in such a fashion and after minutes of frantic slow-motion enhanced battles suddenly text will appear saying he lost the battle and had to retreat.  Of course, what isn’t told is that the government forces far outnumbered the revolutionary troops a fact that places these battles into a different light.  Without this knowledge it appears as if two sprawling armies are forever butting heads in a never ending firefight.

At the same time the movie decides to try and portray heroism on the battlefield in ham-fisted sequences that end up being soulless.  For instance, there’s one segment where Huang’s troops are being mowed down by a powerful Gatling gun that is ripping through his army with deadly accuracy.  In a heroic attempt to rally his troops Huang asks for all the grenades to be taped together and he grabs the bundle about to go over the side of the trench on a suicide run before he is forcibly stopped by his men who obviously don’t want him to die.  Instead, while Huang struggles to get back up another trooper picks up the package, runs across the battlefield and manages to complete the suicide run by throwing the grenades onto the Gatling gun placement before exploding in a rain of debris.

On the face of it all this is your standard emotional moment of bravery that shows the dedication of both Huang and his men yet as the dust begins to settle on this heroic act a blurb pops up saying that unfortunately the battle was lost.  In other words, the entire sequence we just saw was rendered inert and basically redundant and it gives audiences the impression that Co-directors Jackie Chan and Li Chang are purposely playing with patriotic emotions for that sake alone in total disregard for the fact that it was a defeat.  What is the message that they are trying to evoke?  That bravery and nobility are there in a loss as well as a victory?  That sort of argument can be used on both sides in a war as there is no reason to believe that this sort of behaviour was solely owned by the revolutionaries and not the troops fighting for the Qing dynasty.

To exacerbate matters the way these battles are shot make for some nice quality still photographs but are never given proper setup to inform viewers why they are important and how they unfolded.  I am reminded of a simple foreshadowing technique that James Cameron used in Titanic which worked wonders to educate the audience in as unobtrusive a manner as possible.  At the beginning of the movie Bill Paxton’s scientist character is seen talking to the older Rose and on a nearby computer monitor is a step by step graphic of how the Titanic broke up.  Thus audiences can see that the ship begins to take on water at the bow until it eventually snaps in two as one of the funnels tumbles off.  Thus in this subtle technique Cameron has already informed the audience as to how the ill-fated ship breaks up and provides them with just the right amount of needed knowledge to understand what they will witness later on in the film as the ship sinks.

Contrast this to 1911 where we are given epic structured shots of armies moving around, artillery blasting ships or armies and the requisite trench warfare sequences where men and dirt explode in every direction.  The problem is that these are all unrelated images that are thrown together but the audience has no idea how the overall battlefield looks like.  We don’t know how troops are deployed or even the general layout of the terrain. Without any context to what is going on or where on the map of China we are suppose to be these sometimes beautiful images of death and destruction are completely meaningless montages and ultimately become a giant bore.  You know the directors are scraping the bottom of the originality barrel when once again we are shown yet another “shocking” scene where a poor soldier has to endure getting his leg sawed off in case it gets infected while melodramatic music pours out of the speaker system.  Once again the film completely betrays itself as being aimed towards its own mainland China audience who obviously will know where these cities and battlefields are but the rest of the world is going to have to use a map to understand where the action is taking place.

This brings up another issue and that is that everyone in the Qing dynasty is portrayed as completely out of touch or a self-serving lout who only cares for political or material gain.  While this might have been true it also tilts the film completely out of whack as there is no sympathy generated for the argument that perhaps Imperial rule wasn’t so bad.  Joan Chen as the Empress Dowager is mainly wasted as she spends the entire movie not wanting to believe in the strength of the revolutionary army and her son, Pu Yi, who we all know is the last emperor is nothing but a cry baby.  Again there is no attempt to even try and show how and why the Qing rulers have become complacent and suffer from a high degree of ineptitude.  A sequence or two that showed how their thinking was warped or shaped into believing in their divine right to rule might have worked wonders as without this the entire court appears to be nothing more than a bunch of circus clowns.

As mentioned before, Jackie Chan is really beginning to look his age although it must be said that he has certainly matured as a dramatic actor.  This should not be any surprise for those who have seen many of his films of which this is actually his one hundredth.  Now that is an amazing accomplishment.  What isn’t so amazing is that he turns in a rather mundane performance rooted in the fact that the script gives him precious little to do except shout and bark orders on the battlefield.  At the same time in an almost bizarre sequence that comes late in the film Chan finally gets to do some martial arts by disarming government sympathizers which feels totally out of place as the entire set piece has no narrative weight giving the impression that it has been included out of some respect to Chan’s fighting movie fans who need to see him fend off thugs.

Although I feel that she is in every Chinese movie I have seen lately, Li Bing Bing as Chan’s love interest finally turns in a performance that can best be politely described as mediocre as she spends the movie basically crying whenever she is on screen.  Considering that the main narrative thrust lies with Chan’s Huang Xing and Chao’s Dr. Sun Yat-Sen the entire romantic subplot is given the shaft and provides as many sparks as a wet matchstick.  Thus we only discover snippets of information that rarely lead us to conclude romance is even building.  At first the duo are thrown together as husband and wife to provide Huang Xing with an alibi yet a few scenes later they are hugging, shedding tears and making googly eyes at one another.  Further on in the film she suddenly turns up pregnant.  This sort of temporal jumping does the subplot no favours and audiences are again going to be exasperated that nothing is explained or elaborated on.

Finally, Winston Chao makes a fine Dr. Sun Yat-Sen providing the film with its best and most grounded performance.  His take on the doctor is certainly engaging albeit relying too much on the fact that this is such a noble character without any vices whatsoever.  However, this comes as no surprise because he’s played Dr. Sun four times already!  He might as well spend the rest of his life playing the good doctor in a kind of a perpetual role.  How this came to pass is anyone’s guess but it is safe to say that he slides into the part with ease and is certainly magnetic when making speeches.  As an added bonus many of these scenes are fully in English and though he retains a discernible accent it feels quite natural.

Unfortunately, all the Western characters they cast must have fallen off the back of a turnip truck as their speech is forced and stilted and they clearly appear to be uneasy and stiff.  The film also glosses over a figure like Homer Lea, an American adventurer who routinely spoke and helped Dr. Sun talking about strategy.  In the film he shows up and proclaims his intent to help Dr. Sun and then suddenly disappears until near the end when he pops up out of nowhere with a noticeable limp surprising even Dr. Sun who openly asks when he arrived in China.  Who was Homer Lea and why is he limping as if he is crippled?  Why should the audience care as he has had only a minute or two of screentime with no apparent explanation?

In the end, it is a metaphor for the entire movie as scene after scene goes by without rhyme or reason and those who aren’t already knowledgeable about this history should stay far away from it as it is nigh inaccessible.  Watching wanton destruction and flailing bodies can be warranted for a minute or two just to watch the skill behind constructing such action spectacles but without a compelling narrative the producers would have been better served if they never bothered to green-light the movie in the first place and release a non-fiction historical book.

*1/2 out of ****

2011, China, 99 Minutes, R, Changchun Film Studio Group/Shanghai Film Studio Group
Directed by Jackie Chan & Li Zhang
Produced by Jackie Chan
Screenplay by Wang Xingdong & Chen Baoguang
Cinmatography by Wai Huang
Art Direction by Hai Zhao
Music by Ding Wei

Jackie Chan: Huang Xing
Li Bing Bing: Xu Zonghan
Winston Chao: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen
Chun Sun: Yuan Shikai
Joan Chen: Longyu
Jaycee Chan: Zhang Zhenwu
Ming Hu: Liao Zhongkai
Wenli Jiang: Soong Ching-Ling

© 2012 The Galactic Pillow