The Founding of a Republic

Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen appear together for the first time in the epic, star-studded story of the birth of modern China.

Jet Li, Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen appear together for the first time in the epic, star-studded story of the birth of modern China, recounting the rise and victory of Mao Zedong’s Communist Party over Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist forces in the Chinese civil war. Officially sanctioned it may be, but Huang Jianxin and Han Sanping’s film is much more than mere propaganda; a rousing yet sophisticated spectacle that reaffirms China’s complex relationship with its own 20th-century history.

Commissioned to mark the 60th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the film’s staggering cast – a veritable who’s who of every major figure in Chinese cinema - even stretches to include onscreen appearances by directors Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Jiang Wen and John Woo.