Vividly depicts the power and influence of "escapist" entertainment.
Comment
03/01/07
Yang Ban Xi - The Eight Model Works (2006)
65 %
Reviews Counted: 20 Fresh: 13 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 6.2/10
Runtime: 90 mins
Synopsis: A documentary musical about the rise and fall of Madam Mao's colorful propaganda opera's during the 1965-1975 Cultural Revolution in China and their renewed popularity in modern day China. These 8 Revolutionary model operas were called the Yang Ban Xi. Based on traditional Chinese... [More]
Genre: Education/General Interest
Reviews
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
The result often feels disorganized or confusing...but the basic material is fascinating.
06/04/06
Comes to some obvious conclusions, but for the most part is pretty fascinating.
06/02/06
Yan opens a window on the past that Westerners in particular will find almost too bizarre for words, yet which never degenerates to the level of outright mockery.
06/02/06
This enthralling documentary, a Dutch production by Hong Kong–born female director Yan Ting Yuen, not only reclaims the Chinese propaganda opera but niftily positions it in the rush of Chinese cultural history.
06/01/06
A proper labor of love profiling many of the principles involved in the making of the films, peppered with a generous helping of wonderful clips.
05/12/06
Too often ... the film remains a hostage to its ambitious construction rather than simply using the opportunity to draw back the veil on a little-documented era.
04/13/06
Top Critic
It's a worthy subject, but its credibility is damaged by some banal fabrications.
04/12/06
Top Critic
Director Yan Ting Yuen has made an odd combination of the documentary and musical genres that is worth seeing simply for its bizarre feel.
04/01/06
The director Yan-Ting Yuen revisits China's recent past to explore the history and legacy of one of the strangest byproducts of totalitarian madness: the revolutionary spectacular.
03/29/06
Top Critic
What lingers is the observation of the thoughtful young artist who admires these productions: He believes it's the function of art to hide the reality that makes you shudder. Yuen would have been better off exposing more of that reality.
03/29/06
Entertaining and informative, but it suffers from distracting voice-overs of what are supposed to be Madame Mao's thoughts. Too bad.
03/29/06
Filmmaker Yuen applies a patina, not only of acceptance, but of humor and irony, to what is often and easily viewed with a dour expression.
03/27/06
What might have been a very enlightening documentary about Chairman Mao's Cultural Revolution has some very strange artistic choices that blunt the impact.
03/24/06
The social and political upheavals of the Cultural Revolution are glanced over to make way for a series of ineffectually meta-movie counterpoints to the great abundance of talking head footage.
03/20/06
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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• Yang Ban Xi - The Eight Model Works at Rotten Tomatoes
• Yang Ban Xi - The Eight Model Works at AskMen
• Yang Ban Xi - The Eight Model Works at AskMen
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