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The National Anthem (film)
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Wikipedia article
'The National Anthem' or 'Guoge' (Chinese: ) is a 1999 Chinese historical drama centered on the composition of "The March of the Volunteers", the theme song to the 1935 drama 'Children of Troubled Times' which was later adopted as the national anthem of the People's Republic of China. The lyrics were composed by poet and playwright Tian Han (played by He Zhengjun) and set to music by the composer Nie Er (played by Chen Kun in his first role). The film is noteworthy for being told from the point of view of Tian, who fell from favor during the Cultural Revolution before being posthumously rehabilitated in the late 1970s. The movie was released to concide with the 50th anniversary of the PRC's founding.Chi, Robert. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-daxO76KmV8C&pg=PA236 "'The March of the Volunteers': From Movie Theme Song to National Anthem" in 'Re-envisioning the Chinese Revolution: The Politics and Poetics of Collective Memories in Reform China', pp. 236 ff.] Woodrow Wilson Center Press (Washington), 2007.
The timing and subject matter mirror the 1959 'Nie Er', a highly fictionalized version of the same events which did not even include Tian.
The film was directed by Wu Ziniu on a budget of around .Rosen, Stanley. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=upaN7waaW7AC&pg=PA71 "The Wolf at the Door: Hollywood and the Film Market in China" in 'Southern California and the World', p. 71.] Praeger Publishers (Westport), 2002. It was a flop, estimated to have lost at the box office; the movie still managed to turn a profit for the Xiaoxiang Film Studio, however, owing to its in subsidies and a million- excellence-in-filmmaking prize at the Huabiao Awards.Zhang Yingjin. [https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=6WzJq0hForAC&pg=PA286 'Chinese Nationalist Cinema', p. 286.] Routledge (New York), 2005. It also won a special prize from the Golden Rooster Awards and best picture at the Hundred Flowers Awards.
See also
* List of Chinese movies of 1999
* 'Nie Er', the 1959 film retelling the same story from Nie Er's point of view
References
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