It's been a long week. Your boss has been grilling you, the smog’s been hanging a little too thick, and worst of all, your national pride is running low.
Well, you're in luck! Because we're about to administer 20 CCs of Cultural Revolution-era pleasure straight to your eyeballs. It's the trailer for the new feature-length animated film Young Mao Zedong, in theaters now.
The trailer opens on a boyish Mao shouting patriotically and doing Kung Fu. What follows is an eclectic series of clips of rural Chinese scenery, his ragtag group of friends, and ambiguous action that implies a conflict somewhere in the plot of the movie. It doesn't look particularly watchable.
Three years in the making, the movie tells the story of Mao Zedong before he was the ass-kicking founder of people's republics you and I know and possibly love.
It promises plenty of action, adventure, and Beijing-approved comic mischief. The filmmakers say the animation style is unlike that of Hollywood or Japan, and that it’s more deeply based in the traditional culture of Mao’s home province of Hunan, drawing on the esthetic of traditional opera and shadow plays.
This could also be the director’s way of explaining why the entire film looks like a video game cut scene.
Quality issues aside, we’re stoked. We can’t wait to get to the theater and cheer alongside the rest of the adoring audience. The nation is ready for Young Mao Zedong, and you should be too. And we’re legally obligated to say that.
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