It seems that this movie has a low score due to being propaganda for the Communist Party of China. I choose however to judge the film as a film, not as a piece of propaganda. The story, if you can even call it a story, is very disconnected, more like a series of events than an actual narrative. Almost all of the events, especially those early on, seem to be concerned with a bunch of Chinese men in thin mustaches speaking about different matters. At the start of each such episode, there i a brief text with a date and a short explanation. Since my Chinese is not good enough to read this, it is all a rather confusing mishmash of things happening. Since my knowledge of modern Cinese history is also somewhat limited I cant say if anything is historically accurate or just made up. What I do know is that an effort has been put into portraying a time of great conflict and political turmoil, and portraying a sort of general movement in the otherwise nonexistent story. I believe, that a person who understands Chinese would understand more of whats going on, I however found it rather tedious and boring at times.There are scenes in the movie where the men in mustaches stop talking and start doing things instead, for instance there i a battle sequence (I have no idea who is fighting who) which is really good, all actions scenes manage to wake you up and capture the viewers imagination for a moment. Visually the movie is very nice, everything looks good, especially previously mentioned war scene. The music is fitting too and it all creates a lot of atmosphere, with such a fragmented plot, it almost becomes a case of style over substance, though i can sense that the substances is in there somewhere. I think in the end tat, as a movie, "The Founding of a Party" is not bad at all. It has its boring moments and the disjoint storyline is a big problem but other than that, I think it kind of works, I would rate this at six out of ten but then there is that propaganda issue.The film ends with an episode in 1921 (which I remember to be more or less historically correct from what little history i know) and then it fast forwards through World War II up to the modern day. This is all accompanied by a narrator (who wasn't translated in my version of the film) who seems to be telling about how china rose to power and everything was good. This whole ending really ruins it for me, especially the final shot of modern day Beijing with a portrait of Chairman Mao outside the forbidden city. The entire film is very one sided, buts that's just a matter of perspective, it is clear though, that this final part of the film is pure propaganda and I jut cant stand by that. Because of the propaganda part I have to lower my grade by two points.

basically it's just a pile-up of stars. no plot, no detailed relationships, no magnificent war scenes. With fake historical background of course.and because of this s-h-i-t-t-y-a-s-s quality film, CCP postponed the air date of Transformer3 in PRC. it earns money by forcing party members and students to watch this goddamn movie.Trust me, no one's gonna watch this propaganda show.If you have any of the alternatives, DON'T WATCH IT!Geez I don't even know how come this movie is presented in the States.

I don't think this movie is intended for non-Chinese, who weren't taught that history (1910-1949) in China. Here is the logic. The Qing Dynasty, a symbol of Feudalism, had already resigned. The Beiyang government was good at selling nation's interest and shooting at students. Sun Yat-sen was too fragile to lead China. KMP was totally corrupted and lead the whole country into disaster. So only CCP could represent Chinese people's interest and lead China. (Don't raise your hands. Recite them and we'll have tests tomorrow.) Such series(foundation of party/government) are just a film version of history books.

I would first say that the movie is for Chinese audience, or for those who know Chinese and Chinese history. I don't mean to set a gap here, but if you don't know who's who, you may get lost. And then, when you finish the movie, you tend to draw a conclusion that everything is for the creation of the Communist Party of China. OK, you have no clue and thereby think it's all about politics. Indeed, the movie is not about a single story but a piece of history as long as 10 years. That may be why the non-Chinese audience quickly lose their interest and patience. That's true that the movie is dedicated to the party. However, for the Chinese audience who were educated to memorize the big names of historical figures, as well as the famous student protest (May Fourth Movement), it would be very interesting to see how the event is restored on screen. Everything happens for a reason. If you can discard your doubt about the political purpose of the movie during watching, you may get to know the history better and then think for a while how it is transited from the beginning to 90 years later. Besides, you would hardly understand the metaphor hidden in the "seemingly dull" plots if you don't know the contemporary Chinese society. I personally guess that the director learned a bit from the very popular Chinese movie Let the Bullet Fly (in theaters earlier this year). How? Think about the final words of the movie, which was read aloud on the boat ...For its content, the censorship organization may worry that it is kinda sensitive for the vivid description of student protest. But considering its purpose, it must be in theaters (what did the incredibly many movie stars come together for?) So, I think that's the "novelty" of this movie.