I've watched some Chinese war movies on YouTube but I only found them cause someone either linked it directly or gave me the name of it. I'd also need English subs, I only know like 15 words of Mandarin lol.

I was wondering if they had a cool movie about the Chinese Civil War/revolution. I'm really a sucker for literally any war movie but I'm down with anything that's actually good.

  • emizeko [they/them]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    this is Korean War, after the time period you asked but have you seen Battle of Lake Changjin? also has a sequel

    the first one at least is on youtube, not sure about second

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Yes that shit slapped super hard. I saw previews for the second but haven't seen it yet

  • emizeko [they/them]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    Battle of Xiangjiang (2017) I haven't finished this yet. so far the historical biographical scenes are cool but the battles are garbage where crowds stand and fire with no cover

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Xiangjiang_River

    From November 27, 1934 to December 1, the Red Army fought with the Kuomintang army in Xing'an County, Quanzhou County and Guanyang County in the territory of Guangxi province for 5 days, finally, the Red Army through Xiangjiang in the border of Quanzhou County and Xing'an County, they broke through the blockade of the Kuomintang army.

    • Golgafrinchan [none/use name]
      ·
      2 years ago

      I've tried watching Chinese war movies. The ones made nowadays all have English subtitles. However, they're just terrible. Overly dramatic, overwrought, 100% pure heroes and 100% evil villains, I can't get through one of them. You'd think the action scenes could save them, but no. I can only like the scenes with massive numbers of extras, like when Hollywood used to make movies with the Roman legions of thousands of men marching around the battlefield with absolutely zero CGI.

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Cheers thx, I'll put this one on a second.

      I've watched quite few soviet era war movies and a lot are really good. Most the Chinese ones I've seen are pretty cheesey to me but I still enjoy watching them. I really just wish there was a Chinese Netflix so I could just poke around and see if anything catches the eye

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah, "Osterns" usually have "The noble white aristocrat officer who comes to realise the error of his ways and joins the revolution." and that's fairly rare in Chinese War Films.

    • emizeko [they/them]
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      2 years ago

      btw there is no English for the character introduction title cards but you can figure out who they are with freeze frame and google translate camera

  • Chapo_is_Red [he/him]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    It's a much bigger investmennt, but the TV series Age of Awakening is on YouTube. It's about the founding of Communist Party of China and the May Fourth Movement. It was popular in China.

    Viki.com has a lot of dramas and films for free with ads, mostly out of East Asia. They have The Eight Hundred, which is a WW2 movie, but not sure how many other films they have in the genre you're looking for (it's mostly slop).

    Viki's China movie section

    Viki also has the well-received live action TV adaptation of Three Body Problem. I also would recommend the shorter series Reset, which isn't historical at all but is quite well done.

  • emizeko [they/them]
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    2 years ago

    for civil war itself, there's one about the part of the long march here they fight across Luding Bridge called 'The Warriors'

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o065yBggOEQ

    • JoesFrackinJack [he/him]
      hexagon
      ·
      2 years ago

      Dope thanks. I never even considered checking my library either. I think mine does have a Kanopy sub as well, I'll check when I get home

      • MF_COOM [he/him]
        ·
        2 years ago

        Yeah I'd recommend it Kanopy is dope. You do have to sift through a ton of cheap low-quality content but they have a ton of great classics, international films, indie films, documentaries and leftist content.

  • RedQuestionAsker2 [he/him, she/her]
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    2 years ago

    I want to watch a kung Fu movie called Gallants (2010), but I can't find it anywhere.

    If anyone can hook it up, let me know.

  • MC_Kublai [none/use name]
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    2 years ago

    Good place as ever to bring this up: has anyone seen Yimou Zhang's To Live? I'm very curious about it and I have heard that it does not shy away from the hardships of life in China following the revolution, and it was censored for a time in the mainland. Is it honest in its portrayal, or is it brainwormed? I've heard great things about Zhang and I'm looking for a place to get into his filmography

  • Grebgreb [he/him]M
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    2 years ago

    The last movie I found I got by searching for Chinese movies on the sino sub and looking for torrents.

  • meth_dragon [none/use name]
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    2 years ago

    集结号 (assembly), it's probably on youtube somewhere

    they flew in korean sfx/choreographers for the first half, don't think anything has topped it since. had my hopes up for changjin lake to be like this but alas

  • emizeko [they/them]
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    2 years ago

    oh I thought of another one. Taking of Tiger Mountain (2014)

    (free with ads on youtube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lge0lFGAq3U)

  • Mardoniush [she/her]
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    edit-2
    2 years ago

    There's a few You Tube channels. This one has a bunch of kung fu, and also a lot of Maoist era films and the Shanghai Opera's/Ballets

    I once again recommend the Red Detachment of Women Ballet. That moment when the male lead throws himself onto his own execution pyre to The Internationale, incredible. You also don't need subs for a Ballet, of course, and it tells a true(ish) story about the early stages of the Chinese Civil War, shortly before the Long March.