TIAN AN MEN (China, 2009)
Directed by: Ye Daying
Starring: Pan Yueming, Liu Xiaoxin, Tian Lihe, Masanobu Otsuka

2009 marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, and the movies lined up to commemorate this magic day. The best known is FOUNDING OF THE REPUBLIC which featured every Hong Kong and Chinese star currently drawing breath, but it’s the lower profile TIAN AN MEN that’s actually worth watching. Sure, it’s Communist propaganda, but it’s Communist propaganda on a scale so massive, breathtaking and jaw-dropping that it transcends propaganda and simply becomes...BEHEMOTH. It’s a broadcast from deep within the Chinese Politburo that manages to be camp and compelling all at once, breathtaking and burlesque, risible and ridiculous, but also revolutionary and, at the end of the day, kind of moving. All this and it’s really just the story of a bunch of soldiers doing a bit of decorating.

1949 and Tiananmen Square is a mess. Overgrown with weeds, dilapidated, dirty and disreputable it looks like hell, nevertheless it's where Chairman Mao wants to hold the Founding Ceremony on October 1, 1949. And so the movie chronicles the epic struggle of a People’s Liberation Army drama troupe as they...clean up and re-decorate the Tiananmen Gate? Yes, it's Extreme Makeover: Communist Edition. Based on interviews with the actual members of the drama troupe, Ye Daying’s special effects extravaganza recreates 1949 Beijing from the ground up, costing $50 million yuan, a huge budget for China. The movie was shot on enormous sets for five months and then required six more months of post production.

As the clock ticks down towards October 1, the drama troupe faces insurmountable obstacles. What’s a Communist victory party without red banners? But Communism is so popular that the entire country is facing a red dye shortage and getting their hands on some requires an elaborate con worthy of OCEAN’S 11. Then there's Crisis Codename: Raise the Red Lanterns! The ones on hand are so small in relation to the massive gate that they look silly. But no craftsmen are left who can make bigger lanterns and heads are going to roll unless they can pull off a miracle. It’s out of these tiny incidents that Ye assembles his massive movie, detail by detail until it towers over the horizon, a massive monument to the blood, sweat and intense attention to dettail that built modern day China, brick by brick, banner by banner and lantern by lantern.