1911: The Xinhai Revolution looks like another epic historical piece coming from China, proudly introduced as Jackie Chan’s 100th film. But it also happens to mark Chan’s long-awaited return to the director’s chair (or at least, as a “general director”)!
The film is based on the 1911 Chinese Revolution, which ended once for all the imperial rule of the Qing Dynasty (in place since 1644!), and resulted in the foundation of the Republic of China. Details about the story will become later. While this subject is interesting, and not-well-known, tthe fact this film is made especially to celebrate the 100th anniversary of this event… doesn’t sound that promising. Propaganda, anyone?
As written above, Chan is strangely credited as a “general director” (see official j-website) — not really sure what it means (thx Chris for noticing). Anyway, Jackie Chan is looking quite serious here, and has been working on several nice chinese projects recently (Little Big Soldier, Shaolin)… Enough to believe there’s still hope? That it’s not another potboiler? That Jackie Chan isn’t turning into some kind of Feng Xiaogang — creating nationalistic tearjerker drama (remember The Assembly)? Wait & see!
Interesting to notice differences between trailers. The chinese teaser (below) is quite different from the japanese (below)/Hong Kong (above) teaser, it sounds less heroic, revealing what appears to be a profound tragic drama. No more Jackie Chan taking up arms to save his beloved country. By the way, it must be said than an insider source posted on Weibo (Chinese equivalent of Twitter) some bad news. The film has supposedly been “heavily cut to please Chinese censors“, and also, “has been shred to pieces in the editing room” with “Jackie Chan’s role now been relegated to 2nd lead” (thanks to TheGoldenRock reports)
1911 will be released in China on September 23, 2011 (same day in the U.S?).
Sources: Official japanese website, THR, Sina
Thanks to SakuraCinema & @TheGoldenRock for the heads-up!
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