Ten years after the revolutionary blockbuster Beginning of the Great Revival was released, a new film, tracing the formation of the Communist Party of China 100 years ago, is set to open on Thursday.

在革命大片《伟大复兴的开端》上映十年后，一部追溯100年前中国共产党形成的新电影将于周四上映。

Veteran filmmaker Huang Jianxin, who co-directed the movie with Han Sanping, had often pondered on revisiting the history with a more human-interest and dramatic tune. And, with the release of 1921－the biggest tribute film to mark the centenary of the Party－the 67-year-old auteur has fulfilled his wish.

与韩三平共同执导这部电影的资深电影人黄建新经常考虑以更有人情味和戏剧性的风格来重温这段历史。随着《一九二一》--纪念建党一百周年的最大一部献礼影片的发行，这位67岁的导演实现了他的愿望。

As of Wednesday, a day before its nationwide release, the movie raked in more than 92 million yuan ($14.25 million) in presale receipts, making it quite possibly the new domestic box-office champion, according to industry observers.

据行业观察人士称，截至周三，在全国范围内上映的前一天，这部电影的预售收入超过了9200万元，很可能成为新的国内票房冠军。

The film is also set to be released in the United Kingdom, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates, its distributors say.

该片的发行商说，该片还将在英国、爱尔兰和阿拉伯联合酋长国上映。

Besides, it will also be simultaneously released to the North American audience via Smart Cinema USA, a mobile cinema app.Unlike Beginning of the Great Revival, which covers 1911-21, the latest film is narrated over a shorter and more compact course in the title year, when the Party held its first National Congress in Shanghai and Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, in the summer of 1921, laying the foundation for its rise.

此外，它还将通过移动影院应用程序Smart Cinema USA向北美观众同步发行。与涵盖1911-21年历史的《伟大复兴的开端》不同，新的影片叙述内容的时间更集中、更紧凑。主要讲述1921年夏天，党在上海和浙江嘉兴召开第一次全国代表大会，为其崛起奠定的基础。

Continuously employing the successful stardom formula, an innovation for revolutionary films starting from The Founding of a Republic (2009), which was also jointly directed by Huang and Han, 1921 casts legions of A-listers to play historical figures, ranging from the founding members of the CPC to political celebrities and the notorious Chinese police officers in Shanghai's foreign concessions.

电影《1921》依旧选择以成功的群星汇聚的方式演绎，这也是革命电影的一个创新。从《建国大业》（2009年）开始，《1921》也选取了大量的重量级明星来扮演历史人物：从中国共产党的创始人到有名的政治家，以及上海外国租界中臭名昭著的中国警察。

Chen Kun and Li Chen respectively play Party founders Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao. Huang Xuan and Ni Ni star as the couple of Li Da, one of the early Party leaders, and his wife, Wang Huiwu.

陈坤和李晨分别扮演党的创始人陈独秀和李大钊。黄轩和倪妮饰演党的早期领导人之一的李达和他的妻子王会悟夫妇。

Actor Wang Renjun reprises the character of Chairman Mao Zedong after his 2019 military film, The Bugle of Gutian.

演员王仁君继2019年的军事电影《古田军号》之后再次扮演毛泽东主席。

Zhu Yilong stars as China's first premier, Zhou Enlai, turning 23 years old in 1921. Wang Yuan plays the role of Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping, then aged 17.

朱一龙饰演中国第一位总理周恩来，1921年年满23岁。王源饰演中国领导人邓小平，当时17岁。

Recalling that he was invited to return to the familiar subject in 2016, director Huang Jianxin, who also serves as the executive producer, says it was stressful to seek a breakthrough in storytelling, as he worried that old-school filmmaking would fail to hook young people, the mainstream theatergoers.

同时担任执行制片人的导演黄建新说，这部影片让他又回到了在2016年同样让他苦思冥想的问题。寻求故事性的突破是很有压力的，因为他担心老派的电影制作无法吸引年轻人，他们也是主流的影院观众。

Newly discovered documents from the early 1920s, especially from archives in Europe and Japan, have helped the creators to piece together the backgrounds of the 13 representatives, including New China's first leader, Mao, who gathered for the first Party congress.

新发现的20世纪20年代初的文件，特别是来自欧洲和日本的档案，帮助创作者拼凑出了参加第一次党代会的包括新中国的第一位领导人毛泽东共13位代表的历史背景。

"We also wanted to retell the history from an international point of view. The founding of the CPC was helped by overseas communists, making it possible to conceive parallel plotlines taking place overseas," says Huang Jianxin.

"我们还想从国际角度来重述这段历史。黄建新说：“中国共产党的成立得到了海外共产党人的帮助，这使得我们构想出在海外发生的相似情节。

Led by Vladimir Lenin, the Moscow-headquartered Communist International (1919-43) assigned Dutch communist Henk Sneevliet, who went by the pseudonym Maring, and Russian delegate Nikolsky to help Chinese people to found the CPC in 1921, according to records.
根据记录，在弗拉基米尔·列宁的领导下，总部设在莫斯科的共产国际（1919-43年）指派化名为马林的荷兰共产党人亨克·斯内夫利特和俄国代表尼科尔斯基帮助中国人在1921年成立了中国共产党。

Coupled with inspiration from an unsealed archive found in Japan, the film 1921 adds espionage genre elements, exemplified by scenes featuring a Japanese spy sent to Shanghai and the two Comintern delegates escaping in a death-defying car chase.

加上从日本发现的未封存的档案中获得的灵感，电影《1921》还增加了间谍类型的元素，例如日本派往上海的间谍和两名共产国际代表在一场死亡的汽车追逐中逃跑的场景。

"When we were conducting our research, we found that Japan was keeping a close eye on the communist activities in the period－it actively supported and nurtured pro-Japan forces in China," says Zheng Dasheng, a Shanghai native and co-director of 1921.

“当我们进行研究时，我们发现日本当时在密切关注这一时期的共产主义活动，它也催生了中国的亲日派，”郑大圣说。他是上海人，也是《1921》的联合导演。

日本政府当时对一大的密切关注，以及对激进的日本人在上海接触具有共产主义思想观念的中国人的警惕

"Besides, the situation in Shanghai was quite complicated with the foreign settlements."

“此外，上海的情况也相当复杂，因为还有外国人的居留区存在”。

For directors Huang Jianxin and Zheng, their other goal was to explore and explain how the faith of communism was shaped, hence helping a wider viewership to understand why revolutionary pioneers risked their lives to pursue the rise of China amid the warlords' disunity and foreign oppression.

对于导演黄建新和郑大圣来说，他们的另一个目标是探索和解释共产主义的信仰是如何形成的，从而帮助更多的观众了解为什么革命先驱在军阀混战和外国压迫中冒着生命危险追求中国的崛起。

"The average age of the 13 delegates who took part in the first CPC National Congress was around 28 years old. There were about 50 members when the Party was founded in 1921, and it was those people who had changed the fate of our country," Huang Jianxin says.

“参加中共第一次全国代表大会的13名代表的平均年龄约为28岁。1921年建党时，大约有50名党员，正是这些人改变了我们国家的命运，”黄建新说。

"It was also the original impetus to drive us to work on the project for five years," he adds.

“这也是驱使我们为这个项目工作五年的原始动力，”他补充说。

In an effort to ensure historical reality, the crew built real-size replicas of the sites of CPC's first and second National Congress and Bowen Girls' School, where the first congress delegates were accommodated for safety concerns.

为了确保历史的真实性，剧组建造了真实1：1的中国共产党第一次和第二次全国代表大会会址以及博文女校的布景。在真实历史事件中，出于安全考虑，第一次代表大会的代表们就住在那里。

Besides, some historical details, such as rickshaw license plates from Shanghai－usually each installed with two plates respectively for being allowed to move around the foreign concessions and other areas of the city－are reflected in the film.

此外，一些历史细节，也反映在了影片中。如上海的人力车通常都会安装两块车牌，以获准在外国租界和城市的其他地区活动。

With some imagination, based on documents from Chinese and foreign archives and libraries, character arcs are also convincingly developed, according to some critics who saw previews.

据一些看过试映的评论家说，电影根据中国和外国档案馆和图书馆的文件来进行合理想象，人物角色都演绎出了令人信服的角色发展。

Such scenarios include Li Da's romantic moments with his newlywed wife; Mao and several delegates asking a laundry's employee to help them wash the suits they would wear for the National Congress; and He Shuheng, the oldest of the 13 delegates, urging Mao to bid farewell to his wife shortly before their ship sailed from Hunan province for Shanghai.

这些场景包括李达与新婚妻子的浪漫时刻；毛泽东和几位代表要求洗衣店的员工帮助他们清洗将在全国代表大会上穿的西装；以及13位代表中年龄最大的何叔衡，在他们的船从湖南开往上海前不久，敦促毛泽东向妻子告别。

"The film skillfully blends suspense and history to take a retrospective look at the first batch of CPC members' endeavor to save the nation from subjugation and ensure its survival," says Rao Shuguang, head of the China Film Critics Association.

“这部电影巧妙地融合了悬念和历史，回顾了第一批中共党员为国家救亡图存所做的努力，”中国电影评论家协会负责人饶曙光说。

"It has also updated filmmaking and storytelling techniques for revolutionary features."

“它还改变了革命题材的电影制作和讲故事的手法。”

记者：徐帆

这群平均年龄28岁的年轻人，开天辟地 | Weekend Movies 06:34 Share

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这群平均年龄28岁的年轻人，开天辟地 | Weekend Movies