The Big Parade (1986) User Reviews

Actually, quite good in terms of movie making

[zzmale · 10/10 · 24 November 2003]

that is, putting aside the political propaganda.

The literal translation: Great Military Parade

The director was great in exploring new ways of movie making in the technical aspects such as cinematography. Many methods adopted was common in the west, but pioneering in the China where creativity was killed due to continuous political movements.

Chen's methods were inventive and original

[Nazi_Fighter_David · 8/10 · 13 November 2005]

"The Big Parade" concerned the training of military cadets for the National Day Parade… Again, Chen set himself apart from the gung-ho propaganda of most Chinese military films to focus on the personal sacrifice involved in allegiance to a regimented army (and, by implication, to China itself); again, his methods were inventive and original…

Visually, military conformism was conveyed in static, formalized images of the trainees as an homogeneous mass, while more private emotions were evoked by the less abstract mobile shots of teeming barracks life; aurally too, frequent voice-overs testified to the soldiers' various inner doubts concerning the cost, and worth, of national unity… Indeed, the desire for independence and freedom of thought is central to Chen's work, both thematically and in terms of its uncompromising style