The Big Parade - Chen Kaige

"Build a new Great wall with our flesh and blood"

The Big Parade, directed by Chen Kaige was filmed and released in 1986. Its been overlooked and forgotten partly thanks to the success Chen Kaige enjoyed for some of his other films such as Yellow Earth. However at the time of its relese it caused quite a stir in both domestic and foreign circles. During the early years of Deng Xiaoping coming to power there was a loosening of control on what could and could not be shown in the media in the People's Republic. Unfortunately by the time The Big Parade was finished that period had ended and the state censors were not happy with the first cut.

The national commitment to economic reform made in 1979 by Deng Xiaoping resulted in a gradual expansion of the permissible. Literary journals sprang up in every city and province, publishing short stories and poems, most of them by unknown writers. Painters abandoned the artificial realism that party ideologues seemed most comfortable with in favor of more abstract and impressionistic works. Movie makers began to explore China's troubled recent past, including the violent politics of the decade long Cultural Revolution. Journalists uncovered widespread corruption within the Communist Party at local levels.

 But now, eight years later, China's best thinkers, its most talented film makers and painters, its experimental writers and poets are once again silent. Some university students have been jailed for demonstrating in support of ''freedom'' and ''democracy.'' Some intellectuals have lost their jobs, others have been imprisoned. Whether the student demonstrations touched off the crackdown or whether party hard-liners used the protests as a pretext for disciplining intellectuals and restricting their creativity remains an unanswered question.

They carried out some pretty extensive reshooting and editing. Most effected was the ending which is one of the most obvious and blatant edits I've ever seen. Sadly the initial reception from foreign critics was also poor, probably thanks to the heavy handed reworking the film was seen as just another in a long line of forgettable PRC propaganda films and aside from some criticism of its supposed themes the film was forgotten.

Though when news of how the film was made gave it a bit more recognition, its still pretty obscure outside of China.

The plot is incredibly minimal, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) unit has been given the honour of taking part in a parade through Tiananmen square to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.   

Thanks to that honour they are forced to undergo a gruelling drill regimen, nine kilometre runs through countryside including river crossing and ridge climbing, constant pace measuring and the stand to attention tests. If you've never had the pleasure of doing drill before that sounds pretty benign and easy, just stand still for a bit and look smart. Here they have to stand still for three hours on a concrete walkway in the baking sun. They have no shade and its so dangerous that a full medical team has to be on standby ready to respond to the men who collapse and vomit. When they aren't baking under the sun they're marching during torrential downpours. Its incredibly brutalising.

"From morning to night running, turning our heads each pace 1.2 metres, 116 steps a minute . Eyes up, eyes down, all together all the time,

One soldier Jiang Junbiao is bowlegged, in order to pass the drill tests he's taken to binding his legs every night, hoping it will straighten them. It doesn't work, if anything it makes him weaker, but he keeps on at it. This goes on for months, and at the end its revealed that the unit will march a mere 96 steps which will be less than a minute at their usual pace. They've marched just under 10,000 Km during training. To quote instructor Sun  "9,993 kilometres for a minute. Not just a matter of political principles."

I honestly can't read this in anyway other than criticism. At the end Sun gives a speech that's militaristic and patriotic propaganda about how great soldiers are and how important it is to serve the nation. But the content of his speech comes across as a dark joke, he compares what they went through to the Long March and recites his favourite lyrics from the national anthem "Build a new Great Wall with our flesh and blood" but then he lists what the men have undergone over the months of constant drilling. Including the time when a soldier didn't go home to his mothers funeral, and another soldier cried as they sent him away. He even documents the number of boots (four pairs each) worn out and how each man has used about six tonnes worth of boot nails. All for less than a minutes worth of screen time on the television. Its a complete waste.