1911 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

1911 Blu-ray Movie Review

The Last Emperor goes through the looking glass.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 19, 2011

Most Americans can recite at least the broad outlines of our Revolutionary War and fight for independence, if often we tend to insert romanticized quasi-history in the place of what really happened. But should we expect people in other countries to have enough context to understand a filmed version depicting the nuances of the colonists’ attempts to free themselves from British rule? While it might be argued that the vast majority of European peoples might have enough connection to America and its long slog toward independence to comprehend at the very least the major points of the story, would someone from the People’s Republic of China be similarly able? A sort of reverse version of that quandary is front and center with regard to 1911, a huge, sprawling and more than occasionally incomprehensible (to Western audiences anyway) epic starring Jackie Chan which seeks to portray the momentous revolution in China that brought down the Qing Dynasty and led to the Republic of China (the precursor to the People’s Republic of China).

This is history writ large, though the film also attempts to personalize the epochal historical events by centering on a handful of individuals, sort of like the David Lean epics of a generation or two ago. Unfortunately, there is such little general worldwide knowledge of these events (for better or worse) that 1911 struggles to establish any dramatic momentum, something further exacerbated by a virtually nonstop array of explanatory titles emblazoned across the screen whenever a new character arrives (which is frequently), helping the audience to know who this or that historical personage is. Again unfortunately, even knowing some of these characters’ names is not going to be of much assistance to the general Western audience, who frankly isn’t going to know a Huang Xing from a Sun Yat-sen.

Those who are old enough to remember radio commentator Paul Harvey will recall Harvey’s iconic mantra, “And now you know. . .the rest of the story” (with that ellipsis standing in for what some wags used to call a pause long enough to drive a truck through). In a way 1911 might be thought of as “the rest of the story”, or at the very least “the other side of the story,” with regard to Bernardo Bertolucci’s elegant and legendary The Last Emperor (and there's little doubt that The Last Emperor may have been on the mind of the filmmakers, including co-director Jackie Chan, for at least one shot positively apes one of the most iconic moments in Bertolucci's film, that of the child Puyi running through the Forbidden City).

But that comparison in and of itself points out the singular problem with 1911. Bertolucci’s film centered on one individual whose story was told with such aplomb and with enough context that even if some audience members didn’t understand everything about what was going on, there was enough context provided for the dramatic purposes of the story. Added to that feat was the humanizing of Puyi, the Last Emperor, whose incredible life story played out against huge sociopolitical events in his country. 1911 on the other hand shoehorns an incredible amount of characters into the same basic story (or at least part or the story, to turn Harvey’s phrase on its head), attempting to portray the revolution part of the Last Emperor’s brief reign from the people’s point of view. It’s a messy attempt and one which many in the West are going to keep at arm’s length for the simple fact that they won’t be able to figure out what’s going on a lot of the time.

Jackie Chan is on hand, in what is his 100th film, as revolution leader Huang Xing, and it is not a role into which Chan’s typical sensibilities are easily accommodated. In fact the film has a couple of awkward moments in what can only be termed the filmmakers’ attempts to pander to Chan’s usual comedic martial arts approach. Chan’s entrance seems to be something of a joke, as he is the only “revolutionary” still sleeping in an early scene, which has the rest of the fomenting crowd running terrified out of their dorm room when a woman deigns to enter. It's a callback to countless roles where Chan plays a shiftless, lazy character who only ultimately discovers his true abilities. Later, there’s a completely odd and obviously interpolated scene that has Chan performing a few rote martial arts moves that are distinctly at odds with the tenor of the rest of the film.

1911 is a mammoth production, one that bears the imprimatur of the Chinese Communist Party, but rather surprisingly the film actually doesn’t overtly espouse the Marxist ideology even if that ideology runs throughout the film as a distinct subtext. But even that is part of the problem with the film, for an understanding of the end of the Imperial Era in China and the nascent flowering of a people’s movement is absolutely necessary if anything that occurs throughout the film is to make any kind of relevant emotional sense. This is a film absolutely chock full of characters, labels and events, but with little to no dramatic sensibility uniting them all into a coherent and affecting story.

1911 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

1911 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Well Go USA with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. This is an absolutely gargantuan production, and the high definition presentation pops magnificently with regard to the film's opulent production design, which features some staggeringly beautiful sets and costumes, especially with regard to the faltering Qing Dynasty. Battle scenes are well staged and feature good sharpness and clarity, with no resolving problems associated with the smoke and debris of explosions. A lot of the interior scenes offer beautifully saturated color, excellent fine detail and good contrast and black levels. All of this said, the overall look of the film is just a tad on the soft side, especially with regard to some of the exterior footage and some not very convincing CGI elements which are shoehorned into the proceedings. While nothing ever really devolves to outright gauziness, there is enough of a lack of consistent clarity in this presentation which keeps it from getting a higher rating.

1911 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

1911 offers lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mixes both in the original Mandarin as well as an English dub. As is typical with a lot of these imports, the English dub is a less than satisfying experience, despite the mix being virtually identical to the original language track. The Mandarin track offers sterling fidelity and some wonderfully immersive sound effects, especially (as might be expected) in the film's exciting battle scenes. Explosions and gunfire erupt through the surrounds and there's some very excellent attention paid to directionality (one loud report from a gun which emanated suddenly from the right rear channel actually made me startle at one point). Dynamic range is exceptional on this track and the overall mix is very well prioritized, offering clear dialogue as well as sometimes fairly busy effects.

1911 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The Blu-ray disc contains the following supplements:

• Deleted Scenes include:
  A Prisoner (HD; 2:41)
  Family Affair (HD; 1:47)
  The Situation (HD; 1:15)
  Lunch (HD; 00:31)
  Photo Session (HD; 00:47)
  Birthday Celebration (HD; 1:54)
• Behind the Scenes (SD; 29:38) offers some good footage of various shots being filmed. Unfortunately there are no subtitle options available for this featurette.
• Original Trailer (SD; 2:34)
• Trailer (HD; 00:55)

The DVD included in this Collector's Editions contains the following supplements:

• Interview with Li Bingbing (5:48) features the lead actress of the film in front of a green screen in her nurse's outfit speaking about the real life character her part is based on.
• Hong Kong Press Conference (29:07) features host Eric Li and stars Jackie Chan, Li Bingbing and Zhao Wenxuan.
• More Behind the Scenes (29:09) contains more footage of scenes being shot. Though there are active subtitle options for this featurette, once again none are actually available, as on the similar featurette on the Blu-ray disc.

1911 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fans of Jackie Chan may be shaking and/or scratching their heads throughout most if not all of 1911. This is no way a "standard" Jackie Chan feature, for better or worse. But the most bothersome aspect of this film is how opaque so much of its action is going to be to Western audiences, most of whom will have little to no knowledge of the history and the characters involved. This problem is only exacerbated by the film's nonstop, and ultimately really annoying, labeling of virtually everyone who comes on screen. One almost starts expecting "Extra" to be slathered over the people in the background after a while. This film will no doubt play a lot better to those with a grounding in Chinese history, but even those people may find 1911 a slow slog, despite the film's undeniable visual sweep.