A propagandistic telling of the origins of the Chinese Communist Party on occasion of its 90th anniversary, co-directors Huang Jianxin and Han Sanping’s Beginning of the Great Revival encompasses war, crumbling social institutions, societal upheaval, melodrama and plenty of political backbiting and gamesmanship, all in a package to be perhaps more admired than enjoyed. For fans of sweeping historical tales, the film’s technical accomplishment and narrative scope win out, by only the slimmest of margins, over plotting that is stodgy and characterizations that are thin and functionally sketched. For the full, original review, from Screen International, click here. (China Lion, unrated, 124 minutes)